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HISTORIC NOTES 



THE NOETHWEST 



GLEANED FROM EARLY AUTHORS, OLD MAPS AND MANUSCRIPTS, 

PRIVATE AND OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE, AND OTHER 

AUTHENTIC, THOUGH, FOR THE MOST PART, 

OUT-OF-THE-WAY SOURCES. 

/ 

By H. W. BECK WITH, 

Of the Danyille Bar ; Corresponding Member of the Historical Societies of 
Wisconsin and Chicago. 






WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



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CHICAGO: 

H. H. HILL AND COMPANY, PUBLISHERS. 

1879. 



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Copyright, 1879. 
By II. W. BECKWITII AND SON. 



KNIGHT S-. LEONARD . I 



PREFACE. 



In the following pajyes the writer has hmited himself, for the most part, to the ter- 
ritorj' watered by the Illinois, the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, the Mauniee and the 
Wabash rivers. He has chosen to do so to the end that the early history of the country 
treated of might be the more fully considered. The topographical features of, and the 
military and civil events occurring in, localities beyond these limits have been noticed 
only in so far as they are directly connected with, or tend to illustrate the field occu- 
pied. 

It has been an aim of the writer to.perpetuate the history of the relations which the 
discovery and early commerce of the northwdfet has sustained to its peculiar topograph- 
ical features. Nature made the routes and pointed out the means of our inland com- 
munication. The first explorations of the northwest were made by way of the lakes, 
the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, the St. Josephs of Lake Michigan, the Illinois River 
and Chicago Creek, the Maumee and' the Wabash and their connecting portages. 
These were also the routes by which the first commerce was carried on. Formerly the 
country was a wilderness of forests and praii'ies, and the abode of wild animals and the 
wild men who hunted them for their furs and skins, which were the only commodities 
for export. In the progress of time the fur-bearing animals and the Indians have dis- 
appeared. The wilderness has been subdued, and the products of its cultivated fields 
now find their way to the marts of Europe. The canoe which carried the furs and pel- 
tries to tide water gave way to the canal boat, and the canal boat has been supplanted 
by the steamer and the railway car. The routes have ahrnj/s remained essentiaUi/ the 
same. They have merely been enlarged and perfected from time to time, to meet the 
ever-increasing demands of the west in the successive stages of its development. 

The country drained by the rivers we have named is x-ich in the poesy and romance 
of history, reaching back nearly two centuries in the past, where the outlines of 
written records fade away in the twilight and charm tradition. By the routes we have 
named came the Jesuit Fathers, with crucifix and altar, bearing the truths of Chris- 
tianity to distant and savage tribes. Along these routes passed the Coureurs-de-hois 
and the VoyageHrs, — gay and happy sons of France — with knives, guns, blankets and 
trinkets to exchange with the Indians for products of the chase. Following the 
traders came French colonists, who, on their way from Canada to Louisiana, passed 
up the Maumee and down the Wabash, nearly three-quarters of a century before the 
Declaration of Independence was proclaimed. 

Along these streams were the villages of the most powerful Lidian confederacies. 
It was but natural that they should defend their country against the encroachment of 
another race; and the strife between the two for its possession furnishes material for 
many thrilling events in its history. In treating of the Indians, the writer has had no 
theories to advocate or morbid sentiments to gratify; he has only quoted what he has 
found in volumes regarded as standard authorities, without prejudice in favor or 
against this people. They have given away before an inexorable law, the severity of 
which could have been only modified at best. The writer believes the dominant race, 
out of their love for truth, will accord the Indian that even-handed justice to which he 



4 PREFACE. 

is liistoriciilly entitled. Our knowledge of this people is fragmentary at best. They 
kept no records, and have no historians. All we know of them is to be found in the 
writings of persons who, if not their open enemies, at least had little interest in doing 
them justice. As a rule, early travelers have only alluded in an incidental way to the 
aboriginal inhabitants, or their manners and customs. We know, at best, but very 
little of the Indians who formerly occupied the country east of the Mississippi. They 
have passed away, and the information that has been preserved concerning them is so 
scattered through the volumes of authors who have written from other motives, and at 
different dates or of different nations, without taking thought to discriminate, that 
anything like a satisfactory account of a particular tribe is not attainable. However, 
the writer has in the following pages given the result of his gleanings over a wide 
field of authors, — French, English and American, — so far as they relate to the several 
tribes who formerly occupied that portion of the Northwest to which the attention of 
the reader has been called. The writer has preserved the aboriginal, as well as the 
French and early English names of the lakes, rivers, Indian villages and other locali- 
ties possessing historical interest, whenever attainable from books, maps or manu- 
scripts to which he has had access. 

Commercial enterprise led to the exploration of the northwest. It was competition 
for the fur trade between rival races, the French and the Anglo-Saxon, that produced 
the collision between the subjects of the two colonies in America, that finally cul- 
minated in a war between France and England, aided by their respective colonies, 
that resulted in the loss of the whole Mississippi valley to its first discoverers. It was 
a desire to retain control of the fur trade that contributed largely to the bitterness of 
the Indian border wars that commenced as soon as emigration began to extend itself 
west of the AUeganies; and the same cause prolonged the Indian ti-oubles for years 
after the country had ceased to be a part of the dominion of either France or Great 
Britain. 

Beginning with the mission work of the Jesuit Fathers on the southern shore of 
Lake Superior, in 1660, and extending down to 1800, but little is known of the country 
lying north and west of the Ohio river; and the meagre material is only to be found in 
antiquated books and maps long out of print, or in manuscript correspondence of 
a private or official character, none of which is accessible to the general reader. It is 
chiefly from these sources that most of the matter contained in the present volume has 
been collated. As far as practicable the writer has preferred to introduce his author- 
ities upon the stand and let them tell their stories in their own language, leaving the 
readers to draw their own conclusions from what the witnesses have stated. Wherever 
attainable, original sources of information are given. 

Besides such authors as Hennepin, Charlevoix and the invaluable translations and 
contributions of Dr. John G. Shea, the writer has availed himself freely of the Jesuit 
Relations and the publications of the historical societies of Louisiana, Pennsylvania, 
Massachusetts, New York and Wisconsin. 

The writer is conscious that his task, voluntarily assumed, has been but indifterently 
performed. H. W. B. 

Danvillk, Ii.i,., Nov. 5, 1879. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Topography — The drainage of the Lakes and the Mississippi, and the Indian and 

French names by which they were severally called 10 

CHAPTER n. 

Drainage of the Illinois and Wabash — Their tributary streams — The portages 
connecting the drainage to the Atlantic with that of the Gulf 17 

CHAPTER III. 

The ancient Maumee Valley — Geological features — Formerly Lakes Michigan and 
Superior drained into the Illinois, and Lakes Huron and Erie into the Wa- 
bash — The portage of the Wabash and the Kankakee 21 

CHAPTER IV. 

The rainfall — It has increased, although the rivers seem to have diminished, since 
the settlement of the Northwest — Cultivation of the soil tends to equalize rain- 
fall, and prevent the recurrence of drouths and floods 26 

CHAPTER V. 

Origin of the prairies — Their former extent — Gradual encroachment of the for- 
est — Prairie fires — Aboriginal names of the prairies, and the Indians who 
lived exclusively upon them 29 

CHAPTER VI. 

Early French discoveries — Jaques Cartier ascends the St. Lawrence in 1535 — 
Samuel Champlain founds Quebec in 1608 — In 1642 Montreal is established — 
Influence of Quebec and Montreal upon the Northwest continues until subse- 
quent to the war of 1812 — Early explorations of the French missionaries along 
the shore of Lake Superior — They first learn of the Mississippi — Father Mar- 
quette desires to explore it — The French government determine on its explora- 
tion — Theories as to whether the Mississippi emptied into the Sea of Califor- 
nia, the Gulf of Mexico, or the Atlantic — Joliet and Marquette selected to 
solve the problem — Spanish discoveries of the lower Mississippi in 1525 37 

CHAPTER VII. 

Joliet and Marquette's Voyage— They leave Mackinaw May 17, 1673 — They pro- 
ceed, by way of Green Bay and the Wisconsin, as far as the mouth of the 
Arkansas — Return by way of the Illinois and Chicago Creek — Father Mar- 
quette's Journal, descriptive of the journey and the country through which they 
traveled — Biographical sketches of Marquette and Joliet. 43 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



La Salle's Voyage — Biographical sketch of La Salle — His noncessions and titles 
of nobility — Preparations for his explorations — Sketch of Father Hennepin 
and the merit of his writings — La Salle reaches the Niagara River in Decem- 
ber, 1C78, builds the ship Griffin and proceeds up Lake Erie, and reaches 
Mackinaw in August, 1679 54 

CHAPTER IX. 

La Salle's Voyage continued — Mackinaw the headquarters of the Indian trade — 
The Griffin starts back to Niagara River with a cargo of furs, and is lost upon 
the lake — La Salle resumes his voyage in birch canoes, south along the west 
shore of Lake Michigan, and around its southern extremity to the mouth of 
the St. Joseph, where he erects Fort Miamis 68 

CHAPTER X. 

The several rivers called the Miamis — La Salle's route down the Illinois — The 
Kankakee Marshes — The French and Indian names of the Kankakee and 
Des Plaines — The Illinois — "Fort Crevecoeur " — La Salle goes back to 
Canada — Destruction of his forts by deserters — His return to Fort Miamis, 
and the successful prosecution of his exploration to the mouth of the Missis- 
sippi — The whole valley of the great river taken possession of in the name of 
the King of France 73 

CHAPTER XI. 

Death of La Salle, in attempting to establish a colony near the mouth of the 
MissLssippi — Chicago Creek — The origin of the name — Fort St. Louis built 
by Tonti at Starved Rock — La Salle assassinated and his colony destroyed — 
Joutel, with other survivors, return by way of the Illinois — Second attempt 
of France, under Mons. Iberville, in 1699, to establish settlements on the 
Gulf — Cession of all Louisiana to M. Crozat^Crozat's deed from the King — 
The Western Company — Law's scheme of inflation and its consequences — 
New Orleans founded in 1718 — Fort Chartes erected, and its appearance 87 

CHAPTER XII. 

Surrender of Louisiana to the French Crown in 1731 — Early routes by way of the 
Kankakee, Chicago Creek, the Ohio, the Maumee and Wabash described — 
The Maumee and Wabash, and the number and origin of their several names 
— Indian villages 96 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Aboriginal inhabitants — The several Illinois tribes — "Of the name Illinois, andist 
origin — The Kaskaskias, Cahokias, Taniaroas, Peorias and Metchigamis, sub- 
divisions of the Illinois Confederacy — First mentioned by the Jesuit mission- 
aries in 1655 — Tlieir habits and morals — Their country and villages — Their 
wars with the Iroquois and othi'r tribes — The tradition concerning the Iro- 
quois River — Their decline and removal westward of the Missouri 105 



TARLE OF CONTKNTS. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



The Mianiis — The Miami, Piankeshaw and Wea bands— Tliey are kindred to the 
Illinois, originally from the west of the Mississippi — Their superiority and 
their military disposition — Their subdivisions and various names — Their trade 
and difficulties with the French and the English' — Their migrations — They 
are upon the Maumee and Wabash — Their Villages — From their position 
between the French and English they suffer at the hands of both — They defeat 
the Iroquois — They trade with the English, and incur the anger of the French 
— Their braverj- — Their decline — Destructive effects of intemperance — Cession 
of their lands in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. — Their removal westward and 
present condition 119 

CHAPTER XV. 

The Pottawatomies — They and the Ottawas and Ojibbewaj's one people — Origi- 
nally from the north and east of Lake Huron — Their migrations by way of 
Mackinaw to the country west of Lake Michigan, and thence south and east- 
ward — Their games — Origin of the name Pottawatomie — Allies of the French 

— Occupy a portion of the country of the Miamis along the Wabash — Their 
villages — At peace with the United States after the war of 1812 — Cede their 
lands — Their exodus from the Wabash, the Kankakee and Wabash — Their 
condition in Kansas — Their progress toward civilization 137 

CHAPTER XVI. 

The Kickapoos and Mascoutins reside about Saginaw Bay in 1612; on Fox River, 
Wisconsin, in 1670 — Their reception of the Catholic fathers — Not inclined 
to their teachings — They kill one missionary and retain another in captiv- 
ity — On the Maumee in 1712 — In southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois 

— Migrate to the Wabash — Derivation of the name Mascoutin — Dwellers 
of the prairie — Identity of the Kickapoos with the Mascoutins — Their 
destruction at the siege of Detroit — They were always enemies of the 
French, English and Americans — Nearly destroy the Illinois and Pianke- 
shaws, and occupy their country — Join Tecumseh in a body — They, with 
the Winnebagoes, attack Fort Harrison — Pa-koi-shee-cnu'' s account of the 
engagement — Ka-en-ne-kuck becomes a religious teacher — The wild bands 
make trouble on the Texas border — Their country between the Illinois and 
Wabash — Their resemblance to the Sac and Fox Indians 153 

CHAPTER XVII. 

The Shawnees and Delawares — Originally east of the Alleghany Mountains — 
Are sybdued aud driven out by the Iroquois — Marquette finds the Shawnees 
on the Tennessee in 1673 — At one time in Florida — In 1744 they are in Ohio 
— They war on the American settlements — Their villages on the Big and 
Little Miamis, the St. Mary's, the Au Glaize, Maumee and Wabash — The 
The Delawares — Made women of by the Iroquois — Their country on White 
River, Indiana, and eastward defined — Become friendly to the United States 
after Wayne's victory at Maumee Rapids, in 1794 — They, with the Shawnees, 
sent west of the Mississippi — They furnish soldiers in the war for the Union 

— Adopting ways of the white people l'<^0 



8 TABLE OP CONTEXTS. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Indians — Their implements, utensils, fortifications, mounds, manners and 
customs 1^0 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Stone implements used by the Indians before they came in contact with the Euro- 
peans — Illustrations of various kinds of stone implements, and suggestions 
as to their probable uses 195 

CHAPTER XX. 

The war for the fur trade — Former abundance of wild animals and water-fowl in 
the Northwest — The buffalo; their range, their numbers, and final disappear- 
ance — Value of the fur trade; its importance to Canada — The conreurs de 
bois; their food and peculiai'ities — Goods for Indian trade — The distant parts 
to which the fur trade was carried, and the manner in which it was conducted — 
Competition between French and English for control of the fur trade — It 
results in broils — French traders killed on the Vermilion — The French and 
• Indians attack Fort Pickawillany — War 208 

CHAPTER XXI. 

The war for the empire — English claims to the Northwest — Deeds from the Iro- 
quois to a large part of the country — Military expeditions of Major Grant, 
Mons. Aubrj' and M. de Ligneris — Aubry attempts to retake Fort Du Quesne 
— His expedition up the Wabash — Goes to the relief of Fort Niagara — Is de- 
feated by Sir William Johnson — The, fall of Quebec and Montreal — Surrender 
of the Northwest to Great Britain — The territory west of the Mississippi ceded 
to Spain 224 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Pontiac's war to recover the country from the English — The siege of Detroit — The 
fall of Mackinaw, Saint Joseph, Miamis and Ouiatanon — Relief of Detroit — 
Pontiac's confederacy falls to pieces — Croghan sent west to recover possession 
of the country from the Indians — Is captured and carried to Fort Ouiatanon — 
The country turned over to the English — Pontiac's death 234 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Gen. Clark's conquest of the "lUinois" — The Revolutionary war — Indian depre- 
dations upon the settlements of Kentucky — The savages are supplied with 
ai'ms and ammunition from the English posts at Detroit, Vincennes and Kas- 
kaskia — Gen. Clark applies to Gov. Henry, of Virginia, for aid in an enter- 
prise to capture Kaskaskia and Vincennes — Sketch of Gen. Clark — His 
manuscript memoir of his march to the Illinois — He captures Kaskaskia — 
The surrender of Vincennes — He treats with the Indians, who agree to quit 
their warfare on the Big Knife — Gov. Hamilton, of Detroit, re-captures Vin- 
cennes — Clark's march to Vincennes — He re-takes Vincennes, and makes the 
English forces prisoners of war — Capt. Helm surpi'ises a convoy of English 
boats at the mouth of the Vermilion River — Organization of the northwest 
territory into Illinois county of Virginia — Clark holds the Northwest until the 
conclusion of the revolutionary war. For this reason only it became a part of 
the United States 246 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



Illinois county established — The northwest territory — The ordinance of 1787 — 
A bill of rights — Free-school system — Provisions for states — Old boundaries 
between Canada and Louisiana — Indian wars — The Indian country on the 
Wabash and Maumee ravaged — England refuses to surrender military posts 
within the northwest territory — The first treaty between the United States 
and the Wabash tribes, at Vincennes. in 1792 — The great white wampum 
belt of peace, with medal suspended, delivered by Gen. Putnam — The medal, 
and where afterward found — The British medal — St. Clair's defeat — Futile 
efforts ta obtain peace — Wayne marches from Greenville to the Maumee and 
gains a great victory over the confederated tribes — Treaty of Greenville — 
Wayne's death 260 

CHAPTER XXV. 

The northwest territory divided — Wm. H. Harrison appointed governor of the 
Indiana territory — Its subdivision into counties — Biographical sketch of Gov. > 
Harrison — Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet — They organize a scheme 
to drive the white settlers beyond the Ohio — Illinois Territory formed — Its 
subdivision into the counties of Randolph and St. Clair — DeTelopment of 
Tecumseh 's plans — The Tippecanoe campaign — Lme of Harrison's march — 
Official account of the battle — Incidents — War of 1812 — A large part of the 
Northwest in the hands of the English and Indians — Fall of Fort Dearborn — 
Siege of Forts Wayne and Harrison — Gen. Taylor's report of the attack on 
Fort Harrison — The naval engagement on Lake Erie — The battle of the 
Thames — Tecumseh had "fought it out" with Gen. Harrison — The north 
recovered by Gen. Harrison — The old boundaries restored — Peace concluded — 
Advance of population — Conclusion .* . . v. 278 



HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 



CHAPTER I. 

TOPOGRAPHY. 

The reader will have a better understanding of the manner in 
wliich the territory, herein treated of, was discovered and subse- 
quently occupied, if reference is made, in the outset, to some of its 
more important topographical features. 

Indeed, it would be an unsatisfactory task to try to follow the routes 
of early travel, or to undertake to pursue the devious wanderings of 
the aboriginal tribes, or trace the advance of civilized society into a 
conntry, without some preliminary knowledge of its topograph3\ 

Looking upon a map of Xorth America, it is observed that west- 
ward of tlie Alleghany Mountains the waters are divided into two 
gi-eat masses ; the one, composed of waters floM'ing into the great 
northern lakes, is, by. the river St. Lawrence, carried into the xVtlantic 
Ocean ; the other, collected by a multitude of streams spread out like 
a vast net over the surface of more tlum twenty states and several ter- 
ritories, is gathered at last into the Mississippi River, and thence dis- 
charged into the Gulf of Mexico. 

As it was by the St. Lawrence River, and the great lakes connected 
with it, that the Northwest Territory was discovered, and for many 
years its trade mainly carried on, a more minute notice of this remark- 
able water communication will not be out of place. Jacques Cartier, 
a French navigator, having sailed from St. Malo, entered, on the 10th 
of August, 1535, the Gulf, whicli he had explored the year before, and 
named it the St. Lawrence, in memory of the holy martyr wliose feast 
is celebrated on that day. This name was subsequently extended to 
the river. Previous to this it was called the River of Canada, the 
name iriven l)v the Indians to the whole countrv.* Tlie drainage of 
the St. Lawrence and the lakes extends through 11 degrees of longi- 
tude, and covers a distance of over two thousand miles. Ascending 

* Father Charlevoix' "History and General Description of New France;" Dr. 
John G. Shea's translation ; vol. 1, pp. 37, 115. 

11 



12 HISTORIC NOTES OF THE NORTHWEST. 

this river, we behold it flanked with bold crags and sloping hillsides ; 
its current beset with rapids and studded with a thousand islands ; 
combining scenery of marvelous beauty and grandeur. Seven hundred 
and fifty miles above its mouth, the channel deepens and the shores 
recede into an expanse of water known as Lake Ontario.* 

Passing westward on Lake Ontario one hundred and eighty miles 
a second river is reached. A few miles above its entry into the lake, 
the river is thrown over a ledge of rock into a yawning chasm, one 
hundred and fifty feet below ; and, amid the deafening noise and clouds 
of vapor escaping from the agitated waters is seen the great Falls of 
Niagara. At Bufflilo, twenty-two miles above the falls, the shores of 
Niagara River recede and a second great inland sea is formed, having 
an average breadth of 40 miles and a length of 240 miles. This is 
Lake Erie. The name has been variously spelt, — Earie, Ilerie, Erige 
and Erike. It has also born the name of Conti.f Father Hennepin 
says : " The Hurons call it Lake Erige, or Erike, that is to say, the Lake 
of the Cat, and the inhabitants of Canada have softened the M'ord to 
Erie ; " vide " A New Discovery of a Vast Countr}^ in America," p. 77 ; 
London edition, 1698. 

Hennepin's derivation is substantially followed by the more accurate 
and accomplished historian, Father Charlevoix, who at a later period, 
in 1721, in writing of this lake uses the following words: " The name 
it bears is that of an Indian nation of the Huron language, which was 
formerly settled on its banks and who have been entirely destroyed by 
the Iroquois. Erie in that language signifies cat, and in some accounts 
this nation is called the cat nation." He adds : " Some modern maps 
have given Lake Erie the name of Conti, but with no better success 
than the names of Conde, Tracy and Orleans which have been given 
to Lakes Huron, Superior and Michigan. ";}; 

At the upper end of Lake Erie, to the southward, is Maumee Bay, 
of which more hereafter; to the northward the shores of the lake again 

* Ontario has been favored with several names by early authors and map makers. 
Champlain's map, 1633, lays it down as Lac St. Louis. The map prefixed to Colden's 
"History of the Five Nations" designates it as Cata-ra-qui, or Ontario Lake. The 
word is Huron- Iroquois, and is derived, in their language, from Onfra, a lake, and io, 
beautiful, the compound word meanmg a beautiful lake ; vide Letter of I>ul5ois 
D'Avaugour, August 16, 1663, to the Minister: Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 16. Baron 
LaHontan, in his work and on the accompanying map, calls it Lake Frontenac; ride 
" New \'oyages to North America," vol. 1, p. 219. And Frontenac, the name by which, 
this lake was most generally designated by the early French writers, was given to it in 
honor of the great Count Frontenac, Governor-General of Canada. 

t Narrative of Father Zenolna Membre, who accompanied Sieur La Salle in the 
voyage westward on tliis lake in 1679 ; vide " Discovery and Exploration of the 
Mississippi." by Dr John G. Shea, p. 90. Barou La Hontan's "Voyages to North 
America," vol. 1, p. 217, also map prefixed ; London edition, 1703. Cadwalder Col- 
den's map, referred to in a previous note, designates it as "Lake Erie, or Okswego." 

t Journal of a Voyage to North America, vol. 2, p. 2 ; London Edition, 1761. 



THE LAKES. 13 

approach each other and form a channel known as the River Detroit, a 
French word signifying a strait or narrow passage. Northward some 
twenty miles, and above the city of Detroit, the river widens into a 
small body of water called Lake St. Clair. The name as now written 
is incorrect : " we should either retain the French form, Claire, or take 
the English Clare. It received its name in honor of the founder of the 
Franciscan nuns, from the fact that La Salle reached it on the day con- 
secrated to her."* Northward some twelve miles across this lake the 
land again encroaches upon and contracts the waters within another 
narrow bound known as the Strait of St. Clair. Passing up this strait, 
northward about forty miles. Lake Huron is reached. It is 250 miles 
long and 190 miles wide, including Georgian Bay on the east, and its 
whole area is computed to be about 21,000 square miles. Its magnitude 
fully justified its early name. La Mer-douce, the Fresh Sea, on account 
of its extreme vastness.f The more popular name of Huron, which 
has survived all others, was given to it from the great Huron nation of 
Indians who formerly inhabited the country lying to the eastward of 
it. Indeed, many of the early French writers call it Lac des Hurons, 
that is, Lake of the Hurons. It is so laid down on the maps of Hen- 
nepin, La Hontan, Charlevoix and Colden in the volumes before quoted. 

Going northward, leaving the Straits of Mackinaw, through which 
Lake Michigan discharges itself from the west, and the chain of 
Manitoulin Islands to the eastward, yet another river, the connecting 
link between Lake Huron and Superior, is reached. Its current is 
swift, and a mile below Lake Superior are the Falls, where the water 
leaps and tumbles down a channel obstructed by boulders and shoals, 
where, from time immemorial, the Indians of various tribes have 
resorted on account of the abundance of fish and the ease with which 
they are taken. Previous to the year 1670 the river was called the 
Sault, that is, the rapids, or falls. In this year Fathers Marquette and 
Dablon founded here the mission of " St. Marie du Sault " (St. Mary 
of the Falls), from which the modern name of the river, St. Mary's, is 
derived.:}: Recently the United States have perfected the ship canal 
cut in solid rock, around the falls, through which the largest vessels 
can now pass, from the one lake to the other. 

Lake Superior, in its greatest length, is 360 miles, with a maximum 
breadth of 140, the largest of the five great American lakes, and the 
most extensive body of fresh water on the globe. Its form has been 

*Note by Dr. Shea, " Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi," p. 143. 
tChamplain's map, 1632. Also "Memoir on the Colony of Quebec, ' Angnst 4, 
1663 : Paris Documents, vol. 9. p. 16. 

1 Charlevoix' " History of New France, " voi. 3, p. 110; also note. 



14 HISTOKIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

poetically iind not inaccurately described by a Jesuit Father, whose 
account of it is preserved in the Relations for the years 1669 and 1670 : 
" This lake has almost the form of a bended bow, and in length is more 
than 180 leagues. The southern shore is as it were the cord, the arrow 
being a long strip of land [Keweenaw Point] issuing from the south- 
ern coast and running more than 80 leagues to the middle of the 
lake." A glance on the map will show the aptness of the comparison. 
The name Superior was given to it by the Jesuit Fathers, " in conse- 
quence of its being xihove that of Lake Huron.* It was also called 
Lake Tracy, after Marquis De Tracy, who was governor-general of 
Canada from 1663 to 1665. Father Claude Allouez, in his " Journal 
of Travels to the Country of the Ottawas," preserved in the Relations 
for the years 1666, 1667, says : " After passing through the St. 
Mary's River we entered the upper lake, which will hei-eafter bear 
the name of Monsieur Tracy, an acknowledgment of the obligation 
under which the people of this country are to him." The good father, 
however, was mistaken ; the name Tracy only appears on a few ancient 
maps, or is jierpetuated in rare volumes that record the almost for- 
gotten labors of the zealous Catholic missionaries ; while the earlier 
name of Lake " Superior " is familiar to every school-boy who has 
thumbed an athis. 

At the western extremity of Lake Superior enter the Rivers Bois- 
Brule and St. Louis, the upper tributaries of which have their sources 
on the northeasterly slope of a water-shed, and approximate very near 
the head-waters of the St. Croix, Prairie and Savannah Rivers, which, 
issuing from the opposite side of this same ridge, flow into the upper 
Mississippi. 

The upper portions of Lakes Huron, Michigan, Green Bay, with 
their indentations, and the entire coast line, with the islands eastward 
and westward of the Straits of Mackinaw, are all laid down with quite 
a degree of accuracy on a map attached to the Relations of the Jesuits 
for the years 1670 and 1671, a copy of which is contained in Bancroft's 
History of the United States,t showing that the reverend fathers were 
industrious in mastering and preserving the geographical features of 
the wilderness they traversed in their holy calling. 

Lake Michigan is the only one of the five great lakes that lays 
wholly within the United States, — the other four, with their connect- 
ing rivers and straits, mark the boundary between the Dominion of 
Canada and the United States. Its length is 320 miles ; its average 
breadth 70, with a mean depth of over 1,000 feet. Its area is some 

* Relations of 1660 and 1669. f Vol. 3, p. 152; fourth edition. 



LAKE MICHIGAN. 15 

22,000 square miles, being considerably more than that of Lake Huron 
and less than that of Lake Superior. 

Michigan was the last of the lakes in order of discovery. The 
Hurons, christianized and dwelling eastward of Lake Huron, had been 
driven from their towns and cultivated fields by the L-oquois, and scat- 
tered about Mackinaw and the desolate coast of Lake Superior beyond, 
whither they were followed by their faithful pastors, the Jesuits, who 
erected new altars and gathered the remnants of their stricken follow- 
ers about them ; all this occurred before the fathers had acquired any 
definite knowledge of Lake Michigan. In their mission work for the 
year 1666, it is referred to " as the Lake Illinouek, a great lake adjoin- 
ing, or between, the lake of the Hurons and that of Green Bay, that 
had not [as then] come to their knowledge." In the Relation for the 
same year, it is referred to as " Lake Illeaouers," and " Lake Illinioues, 
as yet unexplored, though much smaller than Lake Huron, and that the 
Outagamies [the Fox Indians] call it Machi-hi-gan-ing." Father Hen- 
nepin says : " The lake is called by the Indians, ' Illinouek,' and by the 
French, ' Illinois,' " and that the " Lake Illinois, in the native lan- 
guage, signifies the ' Lake of Men.' " He also adds in the same para- 
graph, that it is called by the Miarais, " Mischigonong, that is, the 
great lake." * Father Marest, in a letter dated at Kaskaskia, Illinois, 
November 9, 1712, so often referred to on account of the valuable his- 
torical matter it contains, contracts the aboi'iginal name to Michigan, 
and is, .perhaps, the first author who ever spelt it in the way that has 
become universal. He naively says, "that on the maps this lake has 
the name, without any authority, of the ' Lake of the Illinois,^ since 
the Illinois do not dwell in its neighborhood." f 

* Hennepin's " New Discovery of a Vast Country in America," vol. 1, p. 35. The 
name is derived from the two Algonquin words, Michi (raishi or missi), which signifies 
great, as it does, also, several or many, and Sagayigan, a lake; vide Henry's Travels, 
p. 37, and Alexander Mackenzie's Vocabulary of Algonquin Words. 

t Kip's Eaxly Jesuit Missions, p. 222. 



CHAPTER II. 

DRAINAGE OF THE ILLINOIS AND WABASH. 

The reader's attention will now be directed to the drainage of the 
Illinois and Wabash Rivers to the Mississippi, and that of the Maumee 
River into Lake Erie. The Illinois River proper is formed in Grundy 
county, Illinois, below the city of Joliet, by the union of the Kanka- 
kee and Desplaines Rivers. The latter rises in southeastern "Wisconsin ; 
and its course is almost south, through the counties of Cook and Will. 
The Kankakee has its source in the vicinity of South Bend, Indiana. 
It pursues a devious way, through marshes and low grounds, a south- 
westerly course, forming the boundary-line between the counties of 
Laporte, Porter and Lake on the north, and Stark, Jasper and Newton 
on the south ; thence across the dividing line of the two states of Indi- 
ana and Illinois, and some fifteen miles into the county of Kankakee, 
at the confluence of the Iroquois River, where its direction is changed 
northwest to its junction with the Desplaines. The Illinois passes 
westerly into the county of Putnam, where it again turns and pursues 
a generally southwest course to its confluence with the Mississippi, 
twenty miles above the mouth of the Missouri. It is about five hun- 
dred miles long ; is deep and broad, and in several places expands into 
basins, which may be denominated lakes. Steamers ascend the river, in 
high water, to La Salle ; from whence to Chicago navigation is contin- 
ued by means of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. The principal trib- 
utaries of the Illinois, from the north and right bank, are the Au Sable, 
Fox River, Little Vermillion, Bureau Creek, Kickapoo Creek (which 
empties in just below Peoria), Spoon River, Sugar Creek, and finally 
Crooked Creek. From the south or left bank are successively the Iro- 
quois (into the Kankakee), Mazon Creek, Vermillion, Crow Meadow, 
Mackinaw, Sangamon, and Macoupin. 

The Wabash issues out of a small lake, in Mercer county, Ohio, and 
runs a westerly course through the counties of Adams, Wells and 
Huntington in the state of Lidiana. It receives Little River, just 
below the city of Huntington, and continues a westwardly course 
through the counties of Wabash, Miami and Cass. Here it turns 
more to the south, flowing through the counties of Carroll and Tippe- 
canoe, and marking the boundary -line between the counties of Warren 

16 



THE MAUMEE AND PORTAGES. 17 

and Vermillion on the west, and Fountain and Park on the east. At 
Covington, the county seat of Fountain county, the river runs more 
directly south, between the counties of Vermillion on the one side, 
and Fountain and Parke on the other, and through the county of Vigo, 
some miles below Terre Haute, from which place it forms the boundarv- 
line between the states of Indiana and Illinois to its confluence with 
the Ohio. 

Its principal tributaries from the north and west, or right bank of 
the stream, are Little River, Eel River, Tippecanoe, Pine Creek, Red 
Wood, Big Vermillion, Little Vermillion, Bruletis, Sugar Creek, Em- 
barras, and Little Wabash. The streams flowing in from the south and 
east, or left bank of the river, are the Salamonie, Mississinewa, Pipe 
Creek, Deer Creek, Wildcat, Wea and Shawnee Creeks, Coal Creek, 
Sugar Creek, Raccoon Creek, Otter Creek, Busseron Creek, and White 
River. 

There are several other, and smaller, streams not necessary here to 
notice, although they are laid down on earlier maps, and mentioned in 
old " (razetteers " and "Emigrant's Guides."" 

The Maumee is formed by the St. Joseph and St. Mary's Rivers, 
which unite their waters at Ft. Wayne, Indiana. The St. Joseph has 
its source in Hillsdale county, Michigan, and runs southwesterly 
through the northwest corner of Ohio, through the county of De Kalb, 
and into the county of Allen, Indiana. The St. Mary's rises in 
An Glaize county, Ohio, very near the little lake at the head of the 
Wabash, before referred to, and runs northwestwardly parallel with the 
Wabash, through the counties of Mercer, Ohio, and Adams, Indiana, 
and into Allen county to the place of its union with the St. Joseph, 
at Ft. Wayne. Tlie principal tributaries of the Maumee are the Au 
Glaize from the south. Bear Creek, Turkey Foot Creek, Swan Creek 
from the north. The length of the Maumee River, from Ft. Wayne 
northeast to Maumee Bay at the west end of Lake Erie, is very little 
over 100 miles. 

A noticeable feature relative to the territory under consideration, 
and having an important bearing on its discover}' and settlement, is 
the fact that many of the tributaries of the Mississippi have their 
branches interwoven with numerous rivers draining into the lakes. 
They not infrecpicntly issue from the same lake, pond or marsh situated 
on the sunnnit level of the divide from which the waters from one end 
of the common reservoir drain to the Atlantic Ocean and from the other 
to the Gulf of Mexico. By this means nature' herself provided navig- 
able communication between the northern lakes and the Mississippi 
Valley. It was, however, only at times of the vernal floods that the 



18 HISTORIC NOTES OF THE NORTHWEST. 

coinniunication was coin])lete. At otlier seasons of the year it was 
interrupted, when transfers In* land were required for a short distance. 
Tlie phices where these ti'ansfcrs were made are known by the French 
term poi'ttuje^ wliicli. like many other foreign derivatives, has become 
anglicized, and means a carrying place ; because in low stages of water 
the canoes and effects of the traveler had to l)e carried around the dry 
marsh or pond from the head of one stream to the source of that beyond. 

The first of these portages known to the Europeans, of which 
accounts have come down to ns, is the portage of the Wisconsin, in the 
state of that name, connecting the Mississippi and Green Bay by means 
of its situation between the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers. The next is 
the portage of Chicago, uniting Chicago Creek, which emptier into 
Lake Michigan at Chicago, and the Desplaines of the Illinois Tiiver. 
The third is tlie portage of the Kankakee, near the present city of 
South Bend, Indiana, which connects the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan 
with the upper waters of the Kankakee. And the fourth is the ])ortage 
of the Wal)ash at Ft. Wayne. Lidiana, between the Maumee and the 
Wabash, by way of Little River. 

Though al)andoned and their former uses forgotten in the advance 
of permanent settlement and the progress of more efficient means of 
commercial intercourse, these portages were the gateways of the 
French Ijetween their possessions in Canada and along the Mississippi. 

Formei'ly the Northwest was a wilderness of forest and prairie, with 
only the paths of wild animals or the trails of roving Indians leading, 
through tangled undergrowth and tall grasses. In its undeveloped 
form it was without roads, incapable of land carriage and could not 
be traveled by civilized man, even on foot, without the aid of a savage 
guide and a permit from its native occupants which afforded little or no 
security to life or property. For these reasons the lakes and rivers, with 
their connecting portages, were the only highways, and they invited 
exploration. They afforded ready means of opening up the interior. 
The Fi'ench, who were the iirst explorers, at an earl}^ day, as we sliall 
hereafter see, established posts at Detroit, at the mouth of the Kiagara 
River, at Mackinaw, Green Bay, on the Illinois River, the St. Joseph's 
of Lake Michigan, on the Maumee, the Wabash, and at other places 
on the route of inter-lake and river communication. By means of 
having seized these strategical points, and their influence over the 
Indian tribes, the French monopolized the fur trade, and although 
feebly assisted by the liome government, held the whole Mississippi 
Valle}' and regions of the lakes, for near three quarters of a century, 
against all efforts of the English colonies, eastward of the Alleghany 
ridge, who, assisted by England, sought to wrest it from their grasp. 



CHICAGO I'ORTAGE. 19 

licciiiTing to the old portage at Chicago, it is evident that at a com- 
paratively recent period, since the glacial epoch, a large part of Cook 
county was under water. The waters of Lake Michigan, at that time, 
found an outlet through the Desplaines and Illinois Rivers into the 
Mississippi." This assertion is confirmed from the appearance of the 
whole channel of the Illinois River, which formerly contained a stream 
of much greater magnitude than now. The old beaches of Lake 
Michigan arc [)lainly indicated in the ridges, trending westward several 
miles away from the present \vater line. The old state road, from 
Yincennes to Chicago, followed one of these ancient lake beaches from 
Blue* Island into the city. 

The subsidence of the lake must have been gradual, requiring- 
many ages to accomplish the change of direction in the flow of its 
waters from the Mississippi to the St. Lawrence. 

The character of the ])ortage has also undergone changes within 
the memory of men still living. The excavation of the Illinois and 
Michigan Canal, and the drainage of the adjacent land by artificial 
ditches, has left little remaining from which its former appearance can 
now be recognized. Major Stephen H. Long, of the U. S. Topo- 
graphical Engineers, made an examination of this locality in the year 
1823, before it had becti changed by the hand of man, and says, con- 
cerning it, as follows: " The south fork of Chicago River takes its rise 
about six miles from the fort, in a swamp, which communicates also 
with the Desplaines, one of the head branches of the Illinois. Hav- 
ing been informed that this route was frequently used by traders, and 
that it had been traversed by one of the officers of the garrison, — who 
returned with provisions from St, Louis a few days before our arrival 
at the fort, — we determined to ascend the Chicago River in order to 
observe this interesting division of waters. We accordingly left the 
fort on the^Tth day of June, in a boat which, after having ascended 
the river four miles, we exchanged for a narrow pirogue that drew 
less water, — the stream we were ascending was very narrow, rapid and 
crooked, presenting a great fall. It so continued for about three miles, 
when we reached a sort of a swamp, designated l)y the Canadian voy- 
agers under the name of 'Ze Petit Lac!' f Our course through this 
swamp, which extended three miles, was very much impeded by the 
high grass, weeds, etc., through which our pirogue passed with diffi- 
culty. Observing that our progress through the fen was slow, and the 
day being considerably advanced, we landed on the north bank, and 
continued our course along the edge of the swamp for about three 

* Geological Survey of Illinois, vol. 3, p. 240. 

t What remains of this lake is now known by the name of 2^htd Lake. 



20 HISTORIC NOTES OF THE NOKTHWEST. 

miles, until we reached the place where the old portage road meets the 
current, which was here very distinct toward the south. We were 
delighted at beholding, for the tirst time, a feature so interesting in 
itself, but which we had afterward an opportunity of observing fre- 
quently on the route, viz, the division of waters starting from the same 
source, and running in two different directions, so as to become feed- 
ers of streams that discharge themselves into the ocean at immense dis- 
tances apart. Lieut. IJobson, who accompanied us to the Desplaines, 
told us that he had traveled it with ease, in a boat loaded with lead 
and flour. The distance from the fort to the intersection of the port- 
age road is about twelve or thirteen miles, and the portage rOad is 
about eleven miles long ; the usual distance traveled by land seldom 
exceeds from four to nine miles ; however, in very dry seasons it is 
said to amount to thirty miles, as the portage then extends to Mount 
Juliet, near the confluence of the Kankakee. Although at the time 
we visited it there was scarcely water enough to permit our pirogue 
to pass, we could not doubt that in the spring of the year the route 
must be a very eligible one. It is equally apparent that an expendi- 
ture, trifling when compared to the importance of the object, would 
again render Lake Michigan a tributary of the Gulf of Mexico." * 

* Long's Expedition to the Source of the St. Peter's River, vol. 1, pp. 165, 166, 
167. The State of Illinois begun work on the construction of a canal on this old 
portage on the 4th da^wof July, 1836, with great ceremony. Col. Guerdon S. Hubbard, 
still living, cast the first shovelful of earth out of it on this occasion. The work was 
completed in 1848. The canal was fed with water elevated by a pumping apparatus 
at Bridgeport. Recently the city of Chicago, at enormous expense sunk the bed 
of the canal to a depth that secures a flow of water directly from the lake, by means 
of which, the navigation is improved, and sewerage is obtained into the Illinois River. 



CHAPTER III. 



ANCIENT MAUMEE VALLEY. 



"What has been said of the changes in the surface geology of Lake 
Michigan and the Illinois River ma}' also be affirmed with respect to 
Lake Erie and the Maumee and Wabash Rivers. There are peculiari- 
ties which will arrest the attention, from a mere examination of the 
course of the Maumee and of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's Rivers, as 
they appear on the map of that part of Ohio and Indiana. The St. 
Joseph, after running southwest to its union with the St. Mary's at 
Ft. Wayne, as it were almost doubles back upon its former course, 
taking a northeast direction, forming the shape of a letter Y, and after 
having flowed over two hundred miles is discharged at a point within 
less than fifty miles east of its source. It is evident, from an exami- 
nation of that part of the country, that, at one time, the St. Joseph 
ran . wholly to the southwest, and that the Maumee River itself, 
instead of flowing northeast into Lake Erie, as now, drained this lake 
southwest through the present valley of the Wabash. Then Lake 
Erie extended very nearly to Ft. Wayne, and its ancient shores are 
still plainly marked. The line of the old beach is preserved in the 
ridges running nearly parallel with, and not a great distance from, the 
St. Joseph and the St. Mary's Rivers. Professor G. K. Gilbert, in his 
report of the " Surface Geology of the Maumee Yalley," gives the 
result of his examination of these interesting features, from which we 
take the following valuable extract.* 

" The upper (lake) beach consists, in this region, of a single bold 
ridge of sand, pursuing a remarkably straight course in a northeast and 
southwest direction, and crossing portions of Defiance, Williams and 
Fulton counties. It passes just west of Hicksville and Bryan ; while 
AVilliams Center, West Unity and Fayette are built on it. When 
Lake Erie stood at this level, it was merged at the north with Lake 
Huron. Its southwest shore crossed Hancock, Putnam, Allen and 
Van Wert counties, and stretched northwest in Indiana, nearly to Ft. 
Wayne. The northwestern shore line, leaving Ohio near the south 
line of Defiance county, is likewise continued in Indiana, and the two 
converge at New Haven, six miles east of Ft. Wayne. They do not, 
* Geological Survey of Ohio, vol. 1. p. 550. 

21 



22 HISTORIC NOTES OF THE NORTHWEST. 

however, unite, but, instead, become purallcl, and are continued as the 
sides of a broad watercourse, through which the great lake basin then 
discharged its surplus waters, southwestwardly, into the valley of the 
Wabash River, and thence to the Mississippi. At New Haven, this 
channel is not less than a mile and a half broad, and has an average 
depth of twenty feet, with sides and bottom of drift. For twenty-five 
miles this character continues, and there is no notable fall. Three 
miles above Huntington, Indiana, however, the drift bottom is replaced 
by a floor of Niagara limestone, and the descent becomes comparatively 
quite rapid. At Huntington, the valley is walled, on one side at least, 
by rock in situ. In the eastern portion of this ancient river-bed, the 
Maumee and its branches have cut channels fifteen to twenty -five feet 
deep, Avithout meeting the underlying limestone. Most of the inter- 
val from Ft. Wayne to Huntington is occupied l)y a marsh, over which 
meanders Little River, an insignificant stream whose only claim to the 
title of river seems to lie in the magnitude of the deserted channel of 
which it is sole occupant. At Huntington, the Wabash emerges from 
a narrow cleft, of its own carving, and takes possession of the broad 
trough to which it was once an humble tributary." 

Within the personal knowledge of men, the Wabash River has been, 
and is, only a rivulet, a shriveled, dried up representative in comparison 
with its greatness in pre-historic times, when it bore in a broader 
channel the waters of Lakes Erie and Hui-on, a mighty flood, south- 
ward to the Ohio. Whether the change in the direction of the flow of 
Lakes Erie, Huron and Michigan toward the River St. Lawrence, instead 
of through the Wabash and Illinois Rivers respectively, is because 
hemispheric depression has taken place more rapidly in the vicinity of 
the lakes than farther southward, or that the earth's crust south of the 
lakes has been arched upward by subterraneous influences, and thus 
caused the lakes to recede, or if the change has been produced by 
depression in one direction and elevation in the other, combined, is not 
our province to discuss. The fact, however, is well established by the 
most abundant and conclusive evidence to the scientiflc observer. 

The portage, or carrying place, of the Wabash,* as known to the 
early explorers and traders, between the Maumee and Wabash, or rather 
t)ie head of Little River, called by the French " La Petit Riviere," 
commenced directly at Ft. Wayne ; although, in certain seasons of the 
year, the waters approach much nearer and were united l)y a low piece 

* Schoolcraft's Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley, " in the year 
1821, pp. 90, 91. In this year, Mr. Schoolcrart made an examination of the locality, 
with a view to furnish the pulilic information on the practicability of a canal to unite 
the waters of the Maumee and the Wabash. It was at a time when oreat interest 
existed through all parts of the country on all subjects of internal navigation. 



FOKTAGE OF THE WABASH. 23 

of ground or marsh (an ami or bay of what is now called Bear Lake), 
where the two streams flow within one hundred and fifty yards of each 
otlier and admitted of tlie passage of light canoes from the one to the 
otlier. 

The Miami Indians knew the value of this portage, and it was a 
source of revenue to them, aside from its advantages in enabling them 
to exercise an influence over adjacent tribes. The French, in passing 
from Canada to Xew Orleans, and Indian traders going from Montreal 
and Detroit, to the Indians south and westward, went and returned by 
way of Ft. Wayne, where the Miamis, kept carts and pack-horses, with 
a corps of Indians to assist in canning canoes, furs and merchandise 
around the portage, for which they charged a connnission. At the 
great treaty of Greenville, 171*5, where General Anthony Wayne met 
the several Wabash tribes, he insisted, as one of tlie fruits of his victory 
over them, at the Fallen Timbers, on the Maumee, the year before, that 
they should cede to the United States a piece of ground six miles 
square, where the fort, named in honor of General Wayne, had been 
erected after the battle named, and on the site of the present city of 
Ft. Wayne ; and, also, a piece of territory two miles square at the 
carrying place. The distinguished warrior and statesman, " Mishe- 
kun-nogh-quah" (as he signs his name at this treaty), or the Little Turtle 
on behalf of his tribe, objected to a relinquishment of their right to 
their ancient village and its portage, and in his speech to General 
Wavne said : '* Elder Brother, — When our forefathers saw the French 
and English at the Miami village — that ^glorious gate'* which your 
younger brothers [meaning the Miamis] had the happiness to own, 
an(.l through which all the good words of our chiefs had to pass [that 
is, messages between the several tribes] from north to south and from 
east to west, the French and English never told ns they wished to 
purchase our lands from us. The next place you pointed out was the 
Little Biver, and said you wanted two miles square of that place. This 
is a re(piest that our fathers the French or British never made of us ; 
it was always ours. This carrying place has heretofore proved, in a 
great degree, the sul)sistence of your brothers. That place has l)rought 
to us, in the course of one day, the amount of one hundred dollars. 
Let us both own this place and enjoy in common the advantages it 
affords." The Little Turtle's speech availed nothing.* 

The St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, a fine stream of uniform, rapid 
current, reaches its most southerly position near the city of South 
Blind, Indiana, — the city deriving its name from ihehend of the river ; 

* Minutes of the Treaty of Greenville: American State Papers on Indian Affairs. 
vol. 1, pp. 576, 578. 



,^' 



24 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST, 

here the river turns northward, reenters the State of Michigan and dis- 
charges into the hike. AVest of the city is Lake Kankakee, from 
whicli the Kankakee River takes its rise. The distance intervening be- 
tween the head of this little lake and the St. Joseph is about two miles, 
over a piece of marshy ground, where the elevation is so slight " that 
in the year 1S32 a Mr. Alexander Croquillard dug a race, and secured 
a tlow of water from the lake to the St. Joseph, of sufficient power to 
run a grist and saw mill." * 

This is tlie portage of the Kankakee, a place conspicuous for its 
historical reminiscences. It was much used, and offered a choice of 
routes to the Illinois River, and also to the Wabash, by a longer land- 
carriage to the upper waters of the Tippecanoe. A memoir on the 
Indians of Canada, etc., prepared in the year 1718 (Paris Documents, 
vol. 1, p. 889), says: "The river St. Joseph is south of Lake Michi- 
gan, formerly the Lake of the Illinois ; many take this river to pass to 
the Rocks [as Fort St. Louis, situated on ' Starved Rock ' in La Salle 
county, Illinois, was sometimes called], because it is convenient, and 
they thereby avoid the portages ' des Chaines ' and ^des Perches^ " — 
two long, difficult carrying places on the Desplaines, which had to 
be encountered in dry seasons, on the route by the way of Chicago 
Creek. 

The following description of the Kankakee portage, and its adjacent 
surroundings, is as that locality appeared to Father Hennepin, when he 
was there with La Salle's party of voyagers two hundred years ago the 
coming December : " The next morning (December 5, 1679) we joined 
our men at the portage, where Father Gabriel had made the daj- before 
several crosses upon the trees, that we might not miss it another time." 
The voyagers had passed above the portage without being aware of it, 
as the country was all strange to them. We found here a great quan- 
tity of horns and bones of wild oxen, buffalo, and also some canoes 
the savages had made with the skins of beasts, to cross the river with 
their provisions. This portage lies at the farther end of a champaign ; 
and at the other end to the west lies a village of savages, — Miamis, 
Mascoutines and Oiatinons (Weas), who live together. " The river of 
the Illinois has its source near that village, and springs out of some 
marshy lands that are so quaking that one can scarcely walk over them. 
The head of the river is onl}' a league and a half from that of the Mi- 
amis (the St. Joseph), and so our portage was not long. We marked 
the way from place to place, with some trees, for the convenience of 
those we expected after us; and left at the portage as well as at Fort 

* Prof. G. I\I. Levette's Kepoit on the Geology of St. Joseph County: Geological 
Survey of Indiana for the year 1873, p. 459. 



THE KANKAKEE. 25 

Miamis (which they had previously erected at the month of the St. 
Joseph), letters hanging down from the trees, containing M. La Salle's 
instructions to our pilot, and the other iive-and-twenty men who were 
to come with him." The pilot had been sent back from Mackinaw 
with La Salle's ship, the Griffin, loaded with furs ; was to discharge 
the cargo at the fort below the mouth of Niagara River, and then 
bring the ship with all dispatch to the St. Joseph. 

" The Illinois Hiver (continues Hennepin's account) is navigable 
within a hundred paces from its source, — I mean for canoes of barks of 
trees, and not for others, — but increases so much a little way from 
thence, that it is as deep and broad as the Meuse and the Sambre joined 
together. It runs through vast marshes, and although it be rapid 
enough, it makes so many turnings and windings, that after a whole 
day's journey we found that we were hardly two leagues from the place 
we left in the morning. That country is nothing but marshes, full of 
alder trees and bushes ; and we could have hardly found, for forty 
leagues together, any place to plant our cabins, had it not been for the 
frost, which made the earth more firm and consistent." 



CHAPTER IV. 

RAINFALL. 

An interesting topic connected with our rivers is the question of 
rainfall. Tlie streams of the west, unlike those of mountainous dis- 
tricts, which are fed largely by springs and brooks issuing from the 
rocks, are supplied mostly from the clouds. It is within the observa- 
tion of persons who lived long in the valleys of the Wabash and Illinois, 
or along their tributaries, that these streams apparently carr}- a less 
volume of water than formerly. Indeed, the water-courses seem to be 
gradually diwing up, and the whole surface of the country drained l)y 
them has undergone the same change. In early days almost every 
land-owner on the prairies had upon his farm a pond that furnished 
an unfailing supply of water for his live stock the year around. These 
never went dry, even in the driest seasons. 

Formerly the Wabash afforded reliable steamboat navigation as 
high up as La Fayette. In 1831, between the 5th of March and the 
16th of April, fifty-four steamboats arrived and departed from Yin- 
cennes. In the months of February, March and A]iril of the same year, 
there were sixty arrivals and departures from La Fayette, then a village 
of only three or four hundred houses ; many of these boats w^ere large 
side-wheel steamers, built for navigating the Ohio and Mississippi, and 
known as New Orleajis or lower river boats.* The writer has the 
concurrent evidence of scores of early settlers with whom he has con- 
versed that formerly the Vermilion, at Danville, had to be ferried on 
an average six months during the year, and the river was considered 
low when it could be forded at this place without water running into 
the wagon bed. Now it is fordable at all times, except w-hen swollen 
with freshets, M-hich now subside in a very few- days, and often within 
as many hours. Doubtless, the same facts can be affirmed of the many 
other tributaries of \he Illinois and Wabash whose names have been 
already given. 

The early statutes of Illinois and Indiana are replete with special 
laws, passed between the years 1825 and 184u, when the people of 
these two states were crazed over the (juestion of internal navigation, 
providing enactments and chartei's for the slack-water improvement of 

* Tanner's View of the Mississippi, published in 1832, p. 154. 

26 V 



RAINFALL. 27 

hundreds of streams whose insignificance have now only a dry bed, 
most of the year, to indicate that they were ever dignified with sucli 
legislation and invested with the promise of bearing upon their bosoms 
a portion of the fnture internal commerce of the country. 

It will not do to assume that the seeming decrease of water in the 
streams is caused by a diminution of rain. The probabilities are that 
the annual rainfall is greater in Indiana and Illinois than before their 
settlement with a permanent population. The "settling up" of a 
country, tilling its soil, planting trees, constructing railroads, and erect- 
ing telegraph lines, all tend to induce moisture and produce changes 
i^ the electric and atmospheric currents that invite the clouds to pre- 
cipitate their showers. Such has been the effect produced by the hand 
of man upon the hitherto arid plains of Kansas and JSIebraska. Indeed, 
at an early day some portions of Illinois were considered as uninhab- 
itable as western Kansas and Nebraska were supposed, a few years ago, 
to be on account of the prevailing drouths. That part of the state 
lying between the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, south of a line run- 
ning from the Mississippi, between Rock Island and Mercer counties, 
east to the Illinois, set off for the benefit of the soldiers of the War 
of 1812, and for that reason called the " Military Tract," except that 
part of it lying more immediately near the rivers named, was laid under 
the bane of a drouth-stricken region. Mr. Lewis A. Beck, a shrewd 
and impartial observer, and a gentleman of great scientific attainments,* 
was through the " military tract " shortly after it had been run out into 
sections and townships by the government, and says concerning it, 
" The northern part of the tract is not so favorable for settlement. 
The prairies become very extensive and are badly watered. In fact, 
this last is an objection to the whole tract. In dry seasons it is not 
unusual to walk through beds of the largest streams without finding a 
drop of water. It is not surprising that a country so far distant from 
the sea and drained by such large rivers, which have a course of several 
thousand miles before they reach the great reservoir, should not be well 
watered. This, we observe, is the case with all fine-flowing streams of 
the highlands, whereas those of the Champaign and prairies settle in 
the form of ponds, which stagnate and putrify. Besides, on the same 
account there are very few heavy rains in the summer ; and hence 
during that season water is exceedingly scarce. The Indians, in their 
journeys, pass by places where they know there are ponds, but gener- 
ally they are under the necessity of carrying water in bladders. This 
drouth is not confined to the ' military tract,' but in some seasons is 
very general. During the summer/ of 1820 it was truly alarmii:^g; 
* Beck's Illinois and Missouri Gazetteer, published in 1823, pp. 79, 80. 



28 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

travelers, in many instances, were obliged to pass whole days, in the 
warmest weather, without being able to procure a cupful of water for 
themselves or their horses, and that which they occasionally did find 
was almost })utrid. It may be remarked, however, that such seasons 
rarely occur; but on account of its being washed by rivers of such 
immense lengtii this section of the country is peculiarly liable to sutler 
from excessive drouth." The millions of bushels of grain annually 
raised in, and the vast herds of cattle and other live stock that are fat- 
tened on, the rich pastures of Bureau, Henry, Stark, Peoria, Knox, 
Warren, and other counties lying wholly or partially within the "mili- 
tary tract," illustrate an increase and uniformity of rainfall since the 
time Professor Beck recorded his observations. In no part of Illinois 
are the crops more abundant and certain, and less liable to suffer from 
excessive drouth, than in the " military tract." The apparent decrease in 
the volume of water carried by the Wabash and its tributaries is easily 
reconciled with the theory of an increased rainfall since the settlement 
of the country. These streams for the most part have their sources in 
ponds, marshes and low grounds. These basins, covering a great extent 
of the surface of the country, served as reservoirs ; the earth was cov- 
ered with a thick turf that prevented the water penetrating the ground ; 
tall grasses in the valleys and about the margin of the ponds impeded 
the liow of water, and fed it out graduall}^ to the rivers. In the tim- 
ber the marshes were likewise protected from a rapid discharge of their 
contents by the trunks of fallen trees, limbs and leaves. 

Since the lands have been reduced to cultivation, millions of acres 
of sod have been broken by the plow, a spongy surface has been turned 
to the heavens and much of the rainfall is at once soaked into the 
ground. The ponds and low grounds have been drained. The tall 
grasses witli their mat of penetrating roots have disappeared from the 
swales. The brooks and drains, from causes partially natural, or artifi- 
cially aided by man, have cut through the ancient turf and made well 
defined ditches. The rivers themselves have worn a deeper passage in 
their beds. By these means the water is now soon collected from the 
earth's surface and carried oft' with increased velocit}-. Formerly the 
streams would sustain their volume continuousl}- for weeks. Hence 
much of the rainfall is directly taken into the ground, and only a por- 
tion of it now finds its way to the rivers, and that which iloes has a 
speedier exit. Besides this, settlement of and particularly the growing 
of trees on the prairies and the clearing out of the excess of forests in the 
timbered districts, tends to distribute the rainfall more evenly through- 
out the year, and in a large degree prevents the recurrence of those ex- 
tremes of drouth and flood with which this country was formerly visited. 



CHAPTER V. 

ORIGIN OF THE PRAIRIES. 

The prairies have ever been a wonder, and their origin the theme of 
much curious specuhition. The vast extent of these natural meadows 
would naturally excite curiosity, and invite the many theories which, 
from time to time, have been advanced by writers holding conflicting 
opinions as to the manner in which they were formed. Major Stod- 
dard, II. M. Braekenridge and .Governor Reynolds, whose personal 
acquaintance with the prairies, eastward of the Mississippi, extended 
back prior to the year 1800, and whose observations were supported 
by the experience of other contemporaneous residents of the west, held 
that the prairies w^ere caused by fire. The prairies are covered Avith 
grass, and were probably occasioned by the ravages of fire ; because 
wherever copses of trees were found on them, the grounds about them 
are low and too moist to admit the fire to pass over it ; and because it is 
a common practice among the Indians and other hunters to set the 
woods and prairies on fire, by means of which they are able to kill an 
abundance of game. They take secure stations to the leeward, and 
the fire drives the game to them.* 

The plains of Indiana and Illinois have been mostly produced by 
the same caiise. They are very different from the Savannahs on the 
seaboard and the innnense plains of the upper Missouri. In the 
prairies of Indiana I have been assured that the woods in places have 
been known to recede, and in others to increase, within the recollection 
of the old inhabitants. In moist places, the woods are still standing, 
the fire meeting here with obstruction. Trees, if planted in these 
prairies, would doubtless grow. In the islands, preserved by accidental 
causes, the progress of the fire can be traced ; the first burning would 
only scorch the outer bark of the tree; this would render it more 
susceptible to the next, the third would completely kill. I have seen 
in places, at present completely prairie, pieces of burnt trees, proving 
that the prairie had been caused by fire. The grass is generally very 
luxuriant, which is not the case in the plains of the Missouri. There 
may, doubtless, be spots where the proportion of salts or other bodies 
may be such as to favor the growth of grass only.f 

* Sketches of Louisiana, by Magor Amos Stoddard, p. 213. 
t Brackenridge's Views of Louisiana, p. 108. 
29 



30 HISTORIC NOTES ON TH li NORTHWEST. 

Governor Reynolds, who came to Illinois at the age of thirteen, in 
the year ISOO, and lived here for over sixty years, the greater portion 
of his time employed in a public capacity, roving over the prairies 
in the Indian border wars or overseeing the afiairs of a public and busy 
life, in his interesting autobiography, published in 1855, says: "Many 
learned essays are written on the origin of the prairies, but any atten- 
tive observer will come to the conclusion that it is fire burning the 
strong, high grass that caused the prairies. I have witnessed the 
growth of the forest in these southern counties of Illinois, and know 
there is more timber in them now than there was forty or fifty years 
before. The obvious reason is, the fire is kept out. This is likewise 
the reason the prairies are generally the most fertile soil. The vegeta- 
tion in them was the strongest and the fires there burnt with the most 
power. The timber was destroyed more rapidly in the fertile soil than 
in the barren lands. It will be seen that tlie timber in the north of 
the state, is found only on the margins of streams and other places 
where the prairie fires could not reach it." 

The later and more satisfactory theory is, that the prairies were 
formed by the action of water instead of fire. This position was taken 
and very ablj' discussed by that able and learned writer, Judge James 
Hall, as early as 1836. More recently. Prof. Lesquereux prepared an 
article on the origin and formation of the prairies, published at length 
in vol. 1, Geological Survey of Illinois, pp. 238 to 254, inclusive ; and Dr. 
Worthen, the head of the Illinois Geological Department, referring to 
this article and its author, gives to both a most flattering indorsement. 
Declining to discuss the comparative merits of the various theories as 
to the formation of the prairies, the doctor " refers the reader to the 
very able chapter on the subject by Prof. Lesquereux. whose thorough 
acquaintance, both with fossil and recent botany, and the general laws 
which govern the distribution of the ancient as M'ell as the recent flora, 
entitles his opinion to our most profound consideration." ^' 

Prof. Lesquereux' article is exhaustive, and his conclusions are 
summed up in the declaration " that all the prairies of the Mississippi 
Valley have been formed by the slow recessions of waters of vai'ious 
extent; first transformed into swamps, and In the process of time 
drained and dried; and that the high rolling prairies, and those of 
these bottoms along the rivers as well, are all the result of the same 
cause, and form one whole, indivisible system." 

Still later, another eminent writer, Hon. John D. Caton. late Judge 
of the Supreme Court of Illinois, has given the result of his observa- 

* Chap. 1, p. 10, Geology of Illinois, by Dr. Worthen; vol. 1, Illinois Geological 
Survey. 



THE PRAIRIES. 31 

tions. While assenting to the received conclusion that the prairies — 
the land itself — have been formed under water, exce])t the decomposed 
animal and vegetable matter that has been added to the surface of the 
lands since their emergence, the judge dissents from Prof. Lesquereux, 
in so far as the latter holds that the presence of ulmic acid and other 
unfavorable chemicals in the soil of the prairies, rendered them unfit 
for the growth of trees ; and in extending his theory to the prairies on 
the uplands, as well as in their more level and marshy portions. The 
learned judge holds to the popular theory that the most potent cause 
in keeping the prairies as such, and retarding and often destroying 
forest growth on them, is the agency of fire. Whatever may have 
been the condition of the ground when the prairie lands first emerged 
from the waters, or the chemical changes they may have since under- 
gone, how many years the process of vegetable growth and decay may 
have gone on, adding their deposits of rich loam to the original sur- 
face, making the soil the most fertile in the world, is a matter of mere 
speculation ; certain it is, however, that ever within the knowledge of 
man the prairies have possessed every element of soil necessary to in- 
sure a rapid and vigorous growth of forest trees, wherever the germ 
could find a lodgment and their tender years be protected against the 
one formidable enemy, fire. Judge Caton gives the experience of old 
settlers in the northern part of the state, similar to that of Bracken- 
ridge and Reynolds, already quoted, where, on the Vermillion River 
of the Illinois, and also in the neighborhood of Ottawa many years 
ago, fires occurred under the observation of the narrators, which 
utterly destroyed, root and branch, an entire hardwood forest, the 
prairie taking immediate possession of the burnt district, clothing it 
with grasses of its own ; and in a few years this forest land, reclaimed 
to prairie, could not be distinguished from the prairie itself, except 
from its greater luxuriance. 

Judge Caton's illustration of how the forests obtain a foot-hold in 
the prairies is so aptly expressed, and in such harmony with the ex- 
perience of every old settler on the prairies of eastern Illinois and 
western Indiana, that we quote it. 

'• The cause of the absence of trees on the upland prairies is the 
problem most important to the agricultural interests of our state, and 
it is the inquiry which alone I propose to consider, but cannot resist 
the remark that wherever we do find timber throughout this broad 
field of ])rairie, it is always in or near the humid portions of it, — as 
along the nuirgins of streams, or upon or near the springy uplands. 
Many most luxuriant groves are found on the highest portions of the 
uplands, but always in the neighborhood of water. For a remarkable 



32 HISTORIC XOTKS ON THE XOUTUWEST. 

example I may refer to that great chain of groves extending from and 
including the An Sable Grove on the east and llolderman's Grove on 
the west, in Kendall county, occupying the liigli divide between the 
waters of the Illinois and the Fox Rivers. In and around all the 
groves flowing springs abound, and some of them are separated by 
marshes, to the very borders of which the great trees approach, as if 
the forest were ready to seize upon each yard of ground as soon as it is 
elevated above the swamps. Indeed, all our groves seem to be located 
M'here water is so disposed as to protect them, to a great or less extent, 
from the prairie fire, although not so situated as to irrigate them. If 
the head-waters of the streams on the prairies are niost frequently with- 
out timber, so soon as they have attained sufficient volume to impede 
the progress of the fires, with very few exceptions we find forests on 
their borders, becoming broader and more vigorous as the magnitude 
of the streams increase. It is manifest that land located on the borders 
of streams which the fire cannot pass are only exposed to one-half the 
fires to which they would be exposed but for such protection. This 
tends to show, at least, that if but one-half the fires that have occurred 
had been kindled, the arboraceous growth could have withstood their 
destructive influences, and the whole surface of what is now prairie 
would be forest. Another confirmatory fact, patent to all observers, is, 
that the prevailing winds upon the prairies, especially in the autumn, 
are from the loest., and these give direction to the prairie fires. Conse- 
quently, the lands on the westerl}' sides of the streams are the most 
exposed to the fires, and, as might be expected, we find much the most 
timber on the easterly sides of the streams." 

"Another fact, always a subject of remark among the dwellers on 
the prairies, I regard as conclusive proof that the prairie soils are pecu- 
liarly adapted to the growth of trees is, that wherever the fires have 
been kept from the groves by the settlers, they have rapidly encroached 
upon the prairies, unless closely depastured by the farmers' stock, or 
prevented by cultivation. This fact I regard as established by careful 
oljservation of more than thirty-five years, during which 1 have been 
an interested witness of the settlement of this country, — from the time 
when a few log cabins, many miles apart, built in the borders of the 
groves, alone were met with, till now nearly the whole of the great 
prairies in our state, at least, are brought under cultivation by the? in- 
dustry of the husbandman. Indeed, this is a fact as well recognized 
by the settlers as that corn will grow upon the prairies when properly 
cultivated. Ten vears au'o I heard the observation made bv intellii^ent 
men, that within the preceding twenty-five years the area of the timber 
in the prairie portions of the state had actually doubled by the sponta- 



FOREST ENCROACHMENT. 33 

neous extension of the natnral groves. However this may be, certain 
it is that the encroachments of the timber upon the prairies have been 
universal and rapid, wherever not impeded by lire or other physical 
causes." 

When Europeans first landed in America, as they left the dense 
forests east of the Alleghanies and went west over the mountains into 
the valleys beyond, anywhere between Lake Erie and the fortieth 
degree of latitude, approaching the Scioto Eiver, they would have seen 
small patches of country destitute of timber. These were called open- 
ings. As they proceeded farther toward the "Wabash the number and 
area of these openings or barrens would increase. These last were called 
by the English savannahs or meadows, and by the French, prairies. 
Westward of the Wabash, except occasional tracts of timbered lands 
in northern Indiana, and fringes of forest growth along the inter- 
vening water-courses, the prairies stretch westward continuously across 
a part of Indiana and the whole of Illinois to the Mississippi. Taking 
the line of the Wabash railway, which crosses Illinois in its greatest 
breadth, and beginning in Indiana, where the railway leaves the tim- 
ber, west of the Wabash nearMarshfield, the prairie extends to Quincy, 
a distance of more than two hundred and fifty miles, and its contin- 
uity the entire way is only broken by four strips of timber along four 
streams running at right angles with the route of the railway, namely 
the timber on the Vermillion River, between Danville and the Indiana 
state-line, the Sangamon, seventy miles west of Danville near Decatur, 
the Sangamon again a few miles east of Springfield, and the Illinois 
River at Meredosia ; and all of the timber at the crossing of these 
several streams, if put together, would not aggregate fifteen miles 
against the two hundred and fifty miles of prairie. Taking a north 
and south direction and parallel with the drainage of the rivers, one 
could start near Ashley, on the Illinois Central railway, in Washing- 
ton county, and going northward, nearly on an air-line, keeping on the 
divide between the Kaskaskia and Little Wabash, the Sangamon and 
the Yermillion, the Iroquois and the Vermillion of the Illinois, cross- 
ing the latter stream between the mouths of the Fox and Du Page and 
travel through to the state of AVisconsin, a distance of nearly three 
hundred miles, without encountering five miles of timber during the 
whole journey. Mere figures of distances across the '* Grand Prairie,'' 
as this vast meadow was called by the old settlers, fiiil to give an ade- 
quate idea of its magnitude. 

Let the reader, in fancy, go back fifty or sixty 3'ears, when there 
were no farms between the settlement on the Xorth Arm Prairie, in 
Edgar county, and Ft. Clark, now Peoria, on the Illinois River, or 
3 



34 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST, 

between the Salt Works, west of Danville, and Ft. Dearborn, where 
Chicago now is, or when there was not a house between the Wabash 
and Illinois Rivers in the direction of La Fayette and Ottawa ; when 
there was not a solitary road to mark the way ; wlien Indian trails alone 
led to unknown places, where no animals except the wild deer and 
slinking wolf would stare, the one with timid wonder, the other with 
treacherous leer, upon the ventursome traveler; when the gentle winds 
moved the supple grasses like waves of a green sea under the sum- 
mer's sky; — the beauty, the grandeur and solitude of the prairies may 
be imagined as they were a reality to the pioneer when he first beheld 
them. 

There is an essential diiference between the prairies eastward of the 
Mississippi and the great plains westward necessary to be borne in 
mind. The western plains, while they present a seeming level appear- 
ance to the eye, rise ra})idly to the westward. From Kansas City to 
Pueblo the ascent is continuous ; beyond Ft. Dodge, the plains, owing 
to their elevation and consequent dryness of the atmosphere and 
absence of rainfall, produce a thin and stunted vegetation. The prai- 
ries of Illinois and Indiana, on the contrary, are much nearer the sea- 
level, where the moisture is greater. There were many ponds and 
sloughs which aided in producing a humid atmosphere, all which 
induced a rank growth of grasses. All early writers, referring to the 
vegetation of our prairies, including Fathers Hennepin, St. Cosme, 
Charlevoix and others, who recorded their personal observations nearly 
two hundred years ago, as well as later English and American travel- 
ers, bear uniform testimony to the fact of an unusually luxuriant 
growth of grasses. 

Earl}' settlers, in the neighborhood of the author, all bear witness 
to the rank growth of vegetation on the prairies before it was grazed 
by live stock, and supplanted with shorter grasses, that set in as the 
country improved. Since the organization of Edgar county in 1S23, — 
of which all the territory north to the Wisconsin line was then a 
part, — on the level prairie between the present sites of Danville and 
Georiietown, the i>:rass o-rew so hi^h that it Avas a source of amusement 
to tie the tops over the withers of a horse, and in places the height of 
the grass would nearly obscure both horse and rider from view. This 
was not a slough, but on arable land, where some of the first farms in 
Vermillion county were broken out. On the high rolling prairies the 
vegetation was very much shorter, though thick and compact ; its aver- 
age heii::ht beiuijj about two feet. 

The prairie fires have been represented in exaggerated pictures of 
men and wild animals retreating at full speed, with every mark of ter- 



PRAIRIE FIRES. 35 

ror, before the devouring element. Such pictures are overdrawn. In- 
stances of loss of lunnan life, or animals, may have sometimes occurred. 
The advance of the lire is rapid or slow, as the wind may be strong or 
light ; the flames leaping high in the air in their progress over level 
ground, or burning lower over the uplands. When a fire starts under 
favorable causes, the horizon gleams brighter and brighter until a fiery 
redness rises above its dark outline, while heavy, slow-moving masses 
of dark clouds curve upward above it. In another moment the blaze 
itself shoots up, first at one spot then at another, advancing until the 
whole horizon extending across a wide prairie is clothed with flames, 
that roll and curve and dash onward and upward like waves of a burn- 
ing ocean, lighting up the landscape with the brilliancy of noon-day. 
A roaring, crackling sound is heard like the rushing of a hurricane. 
The flame, which in general rises to the height of twenty feet, is seen 
rolling its waves against each other as the liquid, fiery mass moves for- 
ward, leaving behind it a blackened surface on the ground, and long 
trails of murky smoke floating above. A more terrific sight than the 
burning prairies in early days can scarcely be conceived. Woe to the 
farmer whose fields extended into the prairie, and who had sufiered 
the tall grass to grow near his fences ; the labor of the year would be 
swept away in a few hours. Such accidents occasionally occurred, 
although the preventive was simple. The usual remedy was to set 
fire against fire, or to burn ofi" a strip of grass in the vicinity of the 
improved ground, a beaten road, the treading of domestic animals 
about the inclosure of the farmer, would generally afford protection. 
In other cases a few furrows would be plowed around the field, or the 
grass closely mowed between the outside of the fence and the open 
prairie.* 

No wonder that the Indians, noted for their naming a place or 
thing from some of its distinctive peculiarities, should have called 
the prairies Mas-ko-tia, or the place of fire. In the ancient Algon- 
quin tongue, as well as in its more modern form of the Ojibbeway (or 
Chippeway, as this people are improperly' designated), the word scoutay 
means fire ; and in the Illinois and Pottowatamie, kindred dialects, it 
is scotte and scutay, respectively.f It is also eminently characteristic 
that the Indians, who lived and hunted exclusively upon the prairies, 
were known among their red brethren as " Maskoutes," rendered by 
the French writers, Maskoutines, or People of the Fire or Prairie 
Country. 

North of a line drawn west from Yincennes, Illinois is wholly 

* Judge James Hall: Tales of the Border, p. 244; Statistics of the West, p. 82. 
t Gallatin's Synopsis of the Indian Tribes, etc. 



36 HISTOUIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

prairie, — always excepting the tliin curtain of timber draping tlie 
water-courses ; and all that part of Indiana lying north and west of 
the "Wabash, embracing fully one-third of the area of the state, is 
essentially so. 

Of the twenty-seven counties in Indiana, lying wholly or partially 
west and north of the Wabash, twelve of them ai-e prairie ; seven are 
mixed prairies, barrens and timber, the barrens and prairie predomi- 
nating. In five, the barrens, with the prairies, are nearly equal to the 
timber, while only three of the counties can be characterized as heavily 
timbered. And wherever timber does occur in these twenty-seven 
counties, it is found in localities favorable to its protection against the 
ravages of fire, by the proximity of intervening lakes, marshes or 
water-courses. We cannot know how long it took the forest to ad- 
vance from the Scioto ; how often capes and points of trees, like skir- 
mishers of an army, secured a foothold to the eastward of the lakes and 
rivers of Ohio and Indiana, only to be driven back again by the prairie 
fires advancing from the opposite direction ; or conceive how many 
generations of forest growth were consumed by the prairie fires before 
the timber-line was pushed westward across the state of Ohio, and 
through Indiana to the banks of the Wabash. 

The prairies of Illinois and Indiana were born of water and pre- 
served by fire for the children of civilized men, who have come and 
taken possession of them. The manner of their coming, and the diffi- 
culties that befell them on the way, will hereafter be considered. The 
white man, like the forests, advanced from the east. The red man, 
like the prairie fires, as we shall hereafter see, came from the west. 



CHAPTER VL 



EARLY DISCOVERIES. 



Having given a description of the lakes and rivers, and noticed 
some of the more prominent features that characterize the physical 
geography of the territory within the scope of our inquiry, and the 
parts necessarily connected with it, forming, as it were, the outlines or 
ground plan of its history, we will now proceed to fill in the frame- 
work, with a narration of its discovery. J.acques Cartier, as already 
intimated in a note on a preceding page, ascended the St. Lawrence 
River in 1535. He sailed up the stream as far as the great Indian vil- 
lage of Hoc Lelaga, situated on an island at the foot of the mountain, 
styled by him Mont Royal, now called Montreal, a name since extend- 
ed to the whole island. The country thus discovered was called New 
France. Later, and in the year 1598, France, after fifty years of 
domestic troubles, recovered her tranquillity, and, finding herself once 
more equal to great enterprises, acquired a taste for colonization. Her 
attention was directed to her possessions, by right of discovery, in the 
new world, where she now wished to establish colonies and extend the 
faith of the Catholic religion. Commissions or grants were accordingly 
issued to companies of merchants, and others organized for this pur- 
pose, who undertool^ to make settlements in Acadia, as Nova Scotia 
was then called, and elsewhere along the lower waters of the St. Law- 
rence ; and, at a later day, like efforts were made higher up the river. 
In 1(507 Mr. De Monts, having failed in a former enterprise, was 
deprived of his commission, which was restored to him on the condition 
that he would make a settlement on the St. Lawrence. The company 
he represented seems to have had the fur trade only in view, and this 
object caused it to change its plans and avoid Acadia altogether. De 
Monts' company increased in numbers and capital in proportion as the 
fur trade developed expectations of profit, and many persons at St. 
Malo, particularly, gave it their support. Feeling that his name 
injured his associates, M. De Monts retired ; and when he ceased to be 
its governing head, the company of merchants recovered the monopoly 
with which the charter was endowed, for no other object than making 
money out of the fur trade. They cared nothing whatever for the col- 
ony in Acadia, which was dying out, and made no settlements else- 

37 



38 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

where. However, Mr. Samuel Champlain, who cared little for the fur 
trade, and whose thoughts were those of a patriot, after maturely ex- 
amining where the settlements directed by the court might be best 
established, at last fixed on Quebec. He arrived there on the 3d of 
July, 1608, put up some temporary buildings for himself and company, 
and began to clear off the ground, which proved fertile.* 

The colony at Quebec grew apace with emigrants from France ; 
and later, the establishment of a settlement at the island of Montreal 
was undertaken. Two religious enthusiasts, the one named Jerome le 
Hover de la Dauversiere, of Anjou, and the other John James Olier, 
assumed the undertaking in 1636. The next who joined in the move- 
ment was Peter Chevirer, Baron Fancamp, who in 1640 sent tools and 
provisions for the use of the coming settlers. The projectors were 
now aided by the celebrated Baron de Renty, and two others. Father 
Charles Lalemant induced John de Lauson, the proprietor of the island 
of Montreal, to cede it to these gentlemen, which he did in August, 
1640 ; and to remove all doubts as to the title, the associates obtained 
a grant from the New France Company, in December of the same year, 
which was subsequently ratified by the king himself. The associates 
agreed to send out forty settlers, to clear and cultivate the ground ; to 
increase the number annually ; to supply them with two sloops, cattle 
and farm hands, and, after five years, to erect a seminary, maintain 
ecclesiastics as missionaries and teachers, and also nuns as teachers and 
hospitalers. On its part the New France Company agreed to trans- 
port thirty settlers. The associates then contributed twenty-five thou- 
sand crowns to begin the settlement, and Mr. de Maisonneuve embarked 
M'ith his colony on three vessels, which sailed from Rochelle and 
Dieppe, in the summer of 1641. The colon}^ wintered in Quebec, 
spending their time in building boats and preparing timber for their 
houses ; and on the Stli of May, 1642, embarked, and arrived nine 
days after at the island of Montreal, and after saying mass began an 
intrenchment around their tents.f 

Notwithstanding the severity of the climate, the loss of life by dis- 
eases incident to settling of new countries, and more especially the 

* History of New France. 

fFroiu "Dr. Shea's valuable note on Montreal, on pages 129 and 130, vol. 2, of 
his translation of Father Charlevoix' History of New France. Mr. Albach, publisher 
of "Annals of the West," Pittsburgh edition, 1857, p. 49, is in error in saying that 
Montreal was founded in 1613, by Samuel Champlain. Champlain, in company with 
a young Huron Indian, whom he had taken to and brought back from France on a 
previous voyage, visited the island of Montreal in IGll, and chose it as a place for a 
settlement he designed to establish, but which he did not begin, as he was oljliged to 
return to France; ride Charlevoix' " History of New France," vol. 2, p. 23. The Ameri- 
can Clyclopedia, as well as other authorities, concur with Dr. Shea, that Montreal was 
founded in 1642, seven years after Champlain's death. 



QUEBEC FOUNDED. 39 

destruction of its people from raids of the dreaded Iroquois Indians, 
the French colonies grew until, according to a report of Governor 
Mons. Denonville to the Minister at Paris, the population of Canada, 
in 1686, had increased to 12,373 souls. Quebec and Montreal became 
the base of operations of the French in America; the places from 
which missionaries, traders and explorers went out among the savages 
into countries hitherto unknown, going northward and westward, 
even beyond the extremity of Lake Superior to the upper waters of 
the Mississippi, and southward to the Gulf of Mexico ; and it was 
from these cities that the religious, military and commercial affairs of 
this widely extended region were administered, and from which the 
French settlements subsequently established in the northwest and at 
New Orleans were principally recruited. The influence of Quebec and 
Montreal did not end with the fall of French power in America. It 
was from these cities that the English retained control of the fur trade 
in, and exerted a power over the Indian tribes of, the northwest that 
harassed and retarded the spread of the American settlements through 
all the revolutionary war, and during the later contest between Great 
Britain and the United States in the war of 1812. Indeed, it was 
only until after the fur trade was exhausted and the Indians j^laced 
beyond the Mississippi, subsequent to 1820, that Quebec and Montreal 
ceased to exert an influence in that part of New France now known as 
Illinois and Indiana. 

Father Claude Allouez, coasting westward from Sault Ste. Marie, 
reached Chegoimegon, as the Indians called the bay south of the Apos- 
tle Islands and near^La Pointe on the southwestern shore of Lake Supe- 
rior, in October, 1665. Here he found ten or twelve fragments of 
Algonquin tribes assembled and about to hang the war kettle over the 
tire preparatory for an incursion westward into the territory of the 
Sioux. The good father persuaded them to give up their intended 
hostile expedition. He set up in their midst a chapel, to which he gave 
the name of the '' Mission of the Holy Ghost," at the spot afterward 
known as " Lapointe du Saint Esprit," and at once began his mission 
work. His chapel was an object of wonder, and its establishment soon 
spread among the wild children of the forest, and thither from great 
distances came numbers all alive with curiosity, — the roving Potta- 
watomies. Sacs and Foxes, the Kickapoos, the Illinois and Miamis, — 
to whom the truths of Christianity were announced.* 

Three years later Father James Manpiette took the place of Allouez, 
and while here he seems to have been the first that learned of the Missis- 
sippi. In a letter written from this mission by Father Marquette to 
* Shea's History of Catholic Missions, 358. 



40 HISTORIC NOTES ON THK NORTHWEST. 

his Reverend Father Superior, preserved in the Relations for 1669 and 
1670, he says: "When the Illinois come to the point the}' pass a 
great river, which is almost a league in width. It flows from north 
to south, and to so great a distance that the Illinois, who know nothing 
of the use of the canoe, have never as yet heard tell of the mouth ; they 
only know that there are great nations below them, some of whom, 
dwelling to the east-southeast of their country, gather their Indian-corn 
twice a year. A nation that they call Chaouanon (Shawnecs) came to 
visit them during the past summer; the young man that has been 
given to me to teach me the language has seen them ; they were loaded 
with glass beads, which shows that they have connnunication with the 
Europeans. They had to journey across the land for more than thirty 
days before arriving at their country. It is hardly probable that this 
• great river discharges itself in Virginia. We are more inclined to 
believe that it has its mouth in California. If the savages, who have 
promised to make me a canoe, do not fail in their word, we will navi- 
gate this river as far as is possible in company with a Frenchman and 
this young man that they have given me, who understands several of 
these languages and possesses great facility for acquiring others. We 
shall visit the nations M'ho dwell along its shores, in order to open the 
way to many of our fathers who for a long time have awaited this 
happiness. This discovery will give us a perfect knowledge of the sea 
either to the south or to the west." 

These reports concerning the great river came to the knowledge 
of the authorities at Quebec and Paris, and naturally enough stimu- 
lated further inquiry. There were three theories as to where the river 
emptied ; one, that it discharged into the Atlantic south of the British 
colony of Yiiginia; second, that it flowed into the Gulf of Mexico; 
and third, which was the more popular belief, that it emptied into the 
Red Sea, as the Gulf of California was called ; and if the latter, that it 
would afl:brd a passage to China. To solve this important commercial 
problem in geography, it was determined, as appears from a letter from 
the Governor, Count Frontenac, at Quebec, to M. Colbert, Minister of 
the navy at Paris, expedient " for the service to send Sieur Joliet to 
the country of the Mascoutines, to discover the South Sea and the great 
river — they call the Mississippi — which is supposed to discharge itself 
into the Sea of California. Sieur Joliet is a man of great experience 
in these sorts of discoveries, and has already been almost to that great 
river, the mouth of which he promises to see. We shall have intelli- 
gence of him, certainly, this summer.* Father Marquette was chosen 
to accompany Joliet on account of the information he had already ob- 
* Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 92. 



SPANISH EXPLORATIONS. 41 

tained from the Indians relating to the countries to be explored, and 
also because, as he wrote Father Dablon, his superior, Avhen informed 
by the latter that he was to be Joliet's companion, ''1 am ready to <^'o 
on your order to seek new nations toward the South Sea, and teach 
them of our great God whom they hitherto have not known." 

The voyage of Joliet and Marquette is so interesting that we intro- 
duce extracts from Father Marquette's journal. The version we adopt 
is Father Marquette's original journal, prepared for publication by his 
superior, Father Dablon, and which lay in manuscript at Quebec, among 
the archives of the Jesuits, until 1852, when it, together with Father 
Marquette's original map, were brought to light, translated into Eng- 
lish, and published by Dr. John G. Shea, in his " Discovery- and Explo- 
ration of the Mississippi." The version commonly sanctioned was 
Marquette's narrative sent to the French government, where it lay 
unpublished until it came into the hands of M. Thevenot, who printed 
it at Paris, in a book issued by him in 1681, called " Receuil de Voy- 
ages," This account differs somewhat, though not essentially, from 
the narrative as published by Dr. Shea. 

Before proceeding farther, however, we will turn aside a moment 
to note the fact that Spain had a prior right over France to the Missis- 
sippi Valley by virtue of previous discovery. As early as the year 
1525, Cortez had conquered Mexico, portioned out its rich mines 
among his favorites and reduced the inoffensive inhabitants to the worst 
of slavery, making them till the ground and toil in the mines for their 
unfeeling masters. A few years following the conquest of Mexico, the 
Spaniards, under Pamphilus de Xarvaez, in 1528, undertook to conquer 
and colonize Florida and the entire northern coast-line of the Gulf. 
After long and fruitless wanderings in the interior, his party returned 
to the sea-coast and endeavored to reach Tampico, in wretched boats. 
Nearly all perished by storm, disease or famine. The survivors, with 
one Cabeza de Vaca at their head, drifted to an island near the present 
state of Mississippi ; from which, after four years of slavery, De Vaca, 
with four companions, escaped to the mainland and started westward, 
going clear across the continent to the Gulf of California. The 
natives took them for supernatural beings. They assumed the guise 
of jugglers, and the Indian tribes, through which they passed, invested 
them with the title of medicine-men, and their lives were thus guarded 
with superstitious awe. They are, perhaps, the first Eui'opeans who 
ever went overland from the Atlantic to the Pacific. They must have 
crossed the Great River somewhere on their route, and, says Dr. 
Shea, " remain in history, in a distant twilight, as the first Europeans 
known to have stood on the banks of the Mississippi." In 1539, 



42 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

Hernando de Soto, with a party of cavaliers, most of them sons of 
titled nobility, landed with their horses upon the coast of Florida. 
During that and the following four years, these daring adventurers 
wandered through the wilderness, traveling in portions of Florida, 
Carolina, the northern parts of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, 
crossing the Mississippi, as is supposed, as high up as "White River, 
and going still westward to the base of the Rocky Mountains, vainly 
searching for the rich gold mines of which De Vaca had given marvel- 
ous accounts. De Soto's party endured hardships that would depress 
the stoutest heart, while, with fire and sword, they perpetrated atrocities 
upon the Indian tribes through which they passed, burning their 
villages and inflictina: cruelties which make us blush for the wicked- 
ness of men claiming to be christians. De Soto died, in May or June, 
1542, on the banks of the Mississippi, below the mouth of the 
"Washita, and his immediate attendants concealed his death from the 
others and secretly, in the night, buried his body in the middle of the 
stream. The remnant of his survivors went westward and then 
returned back again to the river, passing the winter upon its banks. 
The following spring they went down the river, in seven boats which 
they had rudely constructed out of such scanty material and with the 
few tools they could command. In these, after a three months' voyage, 
they arrived at the Spanish town of Panuco, on the river of that name 
in Mexico. 

Later, in 15G5, Spain, filling in previous attempts, effected a lodg- 
ment in Florida, and for the protection of her colony built the fort at 
St. Augustine, whose ancient ruin, still standing, is an object of curi- 
osity to the health-seeker and a monument to the hundreds of native 
Indians who, reduced to bondage by their Spanish conquerors, perished, 
after years of unrequited labor, in erecting its frowning walls and 
gloomy dungeons. 

"While Spain retained her hold upon Mexico and enlarged her posses- 
sions, and continued, with feebler efforts, to keep possession of the 
Floridas, she took no measures to establish settlements along the Mis- 
sissippi or to avail herself of the advantage that might have resulted 
from its discovery. The Great River excited no further notice after 
De Soto's time. For the next hundred years it remained as it were 
a sealed mystery until the French, approaching from the north by 
way of tlie lakes, explored it in its entire length, and brought to 
public light the vast extent and wonderful fertility of its valleys. 
Resuming the thread of our history at the place where we turned aside 
to notice the movements of the Spanish toward the Gulf, we now pro- 
ceed witli the extracts from Father Marquette's journal of the voyage 
of discovery down the Mississippi. 



CHAPTER VII. 

JOLIET AND MARQUETTE'S VOYAGE. 

The day of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, 
whom I had always invoked, since I have been in this Ottawa country, 
to obtain of God the grace to be able to visit the nations on the River 
Mississippi, was identically that on which M. Jollyet arrived with 
orders of the Comte de Frontenac, our governor, and M. Talon, our 
intendant, to nuike this discovery with rae. I was the more enraptured 
at this good news, as I saw my designs on the point of being accom- 
plished, and myself in the happy necessity of exposing my life for the 
salvation of all these nations, and particularly for the Illinois, who had, 
when I was at Lapointe du Esprit, very earnestly entreated me to carry 
the word of God to their countr3^" 

" We were not long in preparing our outfit, although we were 
embarking on a voyage the duration of which we could not foresee. 
Indian corn, with some dried meats, was our whole stock of provisions. 
With this we set out in two bark canoes, M. Jollyet, myself and five 
men, firmly resolved to do all and suffer all for so glorious an enterprise." 

"It was on the 17th of May, 1673, that we started from the mission 
of St. Ignatius, at Michilimakinac, where I then was,"* 

" Our joy at being chosen for this expedition roused our courage 
and sweetened the labor of rowing from mornino; to niffht. As we 
were going to seek unknown countries, we took all possible precau- 
tions that, if our enterprise was hazardous, it should not be foolhardy; 
for this reason we gathered all possible information from the Indians 
who had frequented those parts, and even from their accounts, traced 
a map of all the new country, marking down the rivers on which we 
were to sail, the names of the nations and places through wliich we 
were to pass, the course of the Great Kiver, and what direction we 
should take when we got to it." 

"Above all, I put our voyage under the protection of the Blessed 
Virgin Immaculate, promising her that, if she did us the grace to dis- 
cover the Great River, I would give it the name of the conception ; 

*St. Ignatius was not on the Island of Mackinaw, hut westward of it, on a point 
of land extending into the strait, from the north shore, laid down on modern maps as 
"Point St. Ignace." On this bleak, exposed and barren spot this mission was estab- 
lished by Marquette himself in 1671. Shea's Catholic Missions, p. 364. 

4.3 



44 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

and that I would also give that name to the first mission I should 
estal)lish among these new nations, as I have actually done among the 
Illinois."' 

After some days they reached an Indian village, and the journal 
proceeds : " Here we are, then, at the Maskoutens. This word, in 
Algonquin, may mean Fire Nation, and that is the name given to them. 
This is the limit of discoveries made by the French, for they have not 
yet passed beyond it. This town is made up of three nations gathered 
here, Miarais, Maskoutens and Kikabous.* As bark for cabins, in tliis 
country, is rare, they use rushes, which serve them for walls and roofs, 
but which aftbrd them no protection against the wind, and still less 
against the rain when it falls in torrents. The advantage of this kind 
of cabins is that they can roll them up and carry them easily where 
they like in hunting time." 

" I felt no little pleasure in beholding the position of this town. The 
view is beautiful and very picturesque, for, from the eminence on which 
it is perched, the eye discovers on everj^ side prairies spreading away 
beyond its reach interspersed with thickets or groves of trees. The 
soil is very good, producing much corn. The Indians gather also 
quantities of plums and grapes, from which good wine could be made 
if they choose." 

"No sooner had we arrived than M. Jollyet and I assembled the 
Sachems. He told them that he was sent by our governor to discover 
new countries, and I by the Almighty to illumine them with the light 
of the gospel ; that the Sovereign Master of our lives wished to be 
known to all nations, and that to obey his will I did not fear death, to 
which I exposed myself in such dangerous voyages ; that we needed 
two guides to put us on our way ; these, making them a present, we 
begged them to grant us. This they did very civilly, and even pro- 
ceeded to speak to us by a present, which was a mat to serve [is on our 
voyage." 

"The next day, which was the 10th of June, two Miamis whom 
they had given us as guides embarked with us in the sight of a great 
crowd, who could not wonder enough to see seven Frenchmen, alone 
in two canoes, dare to undertake so strange and so hazardous an expe- 
dition." 

" "We knew that there was, three leagues from Maskoutens, a river 
emptying into the Mississippi. We knew, too, that the point of the 
compass we were to hold to reach it was the west-southwest, but the 

* The village was near the mouth of Wolf River, which empties into Winnebago 
Lake, Wisconsin. The stream was formerly called the Maskouten, and a tribe of this 
name dwelt along its banks. 



Marquette's voyage. 45 

way is so cut up with marshes and little lakes that it is easy to go 
astray, especially as the river leading- to it is so covered with wild oats 
that you can hardly discover the channel ; hence we had need of our 
two guides, who led us safely to a portage of twenty-seven hundred 
paces and helped us transport our canoes to enter this river, after 
which they returned, leaving us alone in an unknown country in the 
hands of Providence."* 

'' We now leave the waters which flow to Quebec, a distance of four 
or live hundred leagues, to follow those which will henceforth lead us 
into strange lands. 

" Our route was southwest, and after sailing about thirty leagues we 
perceived a place which had all the appearances of an iron mine, and 
in tact one of our ]:)arty who had seen some before averred that the one 
we had found was very rich and very good. After forty leagues on 
this same route we reached the mouth of our river, and finding our- 
selves at 42^° N. we safely entered the Mississippi on the 17th of June 
Avith a joy that I cannot express."t 

* This portage has given the name to Portage City, Wisconsin, where the upper 
waters of Fox River, emptying into Green Bay, approach the Wisconsin River, which, 
coming from the northwest, here changes its course to the southwest. The distance 
from the Wisconsin to the Fox River at this point is, according to Henry R. School- 
craft, a mile and a half across a level prairie, and the level of the two streams is so nearly 
the same that in high water loaded canoes formerly passed from the one to the other 
across this low prairie. For many miles below the portage the channel of Fox River 
was choked with a growth of tangled wild rice. The stream frequently expanding 
into little lakes, and its winding, crooked course through the prairie, well justifies the 
tradition of the Winnebago Indiaus concerning its origin. A vast serpent that lived 
in the waters of the Mississippi took a freak to visit the great lakes ; he left his trail 
where he crossed over the prairie, which, collecting the waters as they fell from the rains 
of heaven, at length became Fox River. The little lakes along its course wei-e, prob- 
ably, the places where he flourished about in his uneasy slumbers at night. Mrs. John 
H. Kinzie's Waubun, p. 80. 

t Father Marquette, agreeably to his vow, named the river the Immaculate Concep- 
tion. Nine years later, when Robert La Salle, having discovered the river in its entire 
length, took possession at its mouth of the whole Mississippi Valley, he named the 
river Colbert, in honor of the Minister of the Navy, a man renowned alike for his 
ability, at the head of the Department of the Marine, and for the encouragement he 
gave to literature, science and art. Still later, in 1712, when the vast country drained by 
its waters was farmed out to private enterprise, as appears from letters patent from the 
King of France, conveying the whole to M. Crozat, the name of the river was changed 
to St. Lewis. Fortunately the Mississippi retains its aboriginal name, which is a com- 
pound from the two Algonquin words missi, signifying great, and sepc, a river. The 
former is variously pronounced »iissil or michil, as in Michilimakinac ; »tichi, as in Mich- 
igan ; missu, as in Missouri, and missi, as in. the Mississeneway of the Wabash. The 
variation in pronunciation is not greater than we might expect in an unwritten lan- 
guage. "The Western Indians," says Mr. Schoolcraft, " have no other word than missi 
to express the highest degree of magnitude, either in a moral or in a physical sense, and 
it may be considered as not only synonymous to our word (freat, but also magnificent, 
supreme, stupendous, etc." Father Hennepin, who next to Marquette wrote concern- 
ing the derivation of the name, says : " Mississippi, in the language of the Illinois, 
means the great river." Some authors, perhaps with more regard for a pleasing fic- 
tion than plain matter-of-fact, have rendered Mississippi "The Father of Waters;" 
whereas, nos, uoiissci/ and nosha mean father, and neebi, nij>i or iicpee mean water, as 
universally in the dialect of Algonquin tribes, as does the word missi mean great and 
sepi a river. 



46 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

" Having descended as far as 41" 28', following the same direction, 
we find that turkeys liave taken the place of game, and pisikious (buf- 
falo) or wild cattle that of other beasts. 

" At last, on the 25th of June, we perceived foot-prints of men by 
the water-side and a beaten path entering a beautiful prairie. We 
stopped to examine it, and concluding that it was a path leading to 
some Indian village we resolved to go and reconnoitre ; we accordingh^ 
left our two canoes in charge of our people, cautioning them to beware 
of a surprise ; then M. Jollyet and I undertook this rather hazardous 
discovery for two single men, who thus put themselves at the mercy of 
an unknown and barbarous people. We followed the little path in 
silence, and having advanced about two leagues we discovered a village 
on the banks of the river, and two others on a hill half a league from 
the former. Then, indeed, we recommended ourselves to God with all 
our hearts, and having implored his help we passed on undiscovered, 
and came so near that we even heard the Indians talking. We then 
deemed it time to announce ourselves, as we did, by a cry which we 
raised with all our strength, and then halted, without advancing any 
farther. At this cry the Indians rushed out of their cabins, and hav- 
ing probably recognized us as French, especially seeing a black gown, 
or at least having no reason to distrust us, seeing we were but two and 
had made known our coming, they deputed four old men to come and 
speak to us. Two carried tobacco-pipes well adorned and trimmed 
with many kinds of feathers. They marched slowly, lifting their pipes 
toward the sun as if offering them to it to smoke, but yet without 
uttering a single word. They were a long time coming the little way 
from the village to us. Having reached us at last, they stopped to con- 
sider us attentively. 

" I now took courage, seeing these ceremonies, which are used by 
them only with friends, and still more on seeing them covered with stuffs 
which made me judge them to be allies. I, therefore, spoke to them 
first, and asked them who they w^ere. They answered that they were 
Illinois, and in token of peace they presented their pipes to smoke. 
They then invited us to their village, where all the tribe awaited us 
with impatience. These pipes for smoking are all called in this country 
calumets, a word that is so much in use that I shall be obliged to employ 
it in order to be understood, as I shall have to speak of it frequently. 

•' At the door of the cabin in which we were to be received was an 
old man awaiting us in a very remarkable posture, which is their usual 
ceremony in receiving strangers. This man was standing perfectly 
naked, with his hands stretched out and raised toward the sun, as if he 
wished to screen himself from its rays, which, nevertheless, passed 



PRESENTATION OF THK CALUMKT. 47 

through liis fingers to liis tace. When we came near him he ])aid us 
tliis compliment: 'How beautiful is the sun, O Frenchman, when 
thou comest to visit us I All our town awaits thee, and thou slialt 
enter all our cabins in peace/ lie then took us into his, where there 
was a crowd of people, who devoured us with tlieir eyes but kept a 
profound silence. We heard, however, these words occasionally ad- 
dressed to us : ' Well done, brothers, to visit us ! ' As soon as we had 
taken our places they showed us the usual civility of the country, 
which is to present the calumet. You must not refuse it unless you 
would pass for an enemy, or at least for being very impolite. It is, 
however, enough to pretend to smoke. While all the old men smoked 
after us to honor us, some came to invite us, on behalf of the great 
sachem of all the Illinois, to proceed to his town, where he wished to 
hold a council with us. We went with a good retinue, for all the 
people who had never seen a Frenchman among them could not tire 
looking at us; they threw themselves on the grass by the wayside, 
they ran ahead, then turned and walked back to see us again. All this 
was done without noise, and with marks of a great respect entertained 
for us. 

" Having arrived at the great sachem's town, we espied him at his 
cabin door between two old men ; all three standing naked, with their 
calumet turned to the sun. He harangued us in a few words, to con- 
gratulate us on our arrival, and then presented us his calumet and made 
us smoke ; at the same time we entered his cabin, where we received 
all their usual greetings. Seeing all assembled and in silence, I spoke 
to them by four presents wdiich I made. By the first, I said that we 
marched in peace to visit the nations on the river to the sea ; by the 
second, I declared to them that God, their creator, had pity on them, 
since, after their having been so long ignorant of him, he wished to 
become known to all nations ; that I was sent on his behalf with this 
design ; that it w^as for them to acknowledge and obey him ; b}' the 
third, that the great chief of the French informed them that he spread 
peace everywhere, and had overcome the Iroquois ; lastly, by the fourth, 
we begged them to give us all the information they had of the sea, and 
of nations through which we should have to pass to reach it. 

" When I had finished my speech, the sachem rose, and laying his 
hand on the head of a little slave whom he was about to give us, spoke 
thus : ' I thank thee. Black-gown, and thee, Frenclnnan,' addressing 
M. Jollyet, 'for taking so much ])ains to come and visit us. Never has 
the earth been so beautiful, nor the sun so bright, as to-day ; never has 
our river been so calm, nor so free from rocks, which your canoes have 
removed as they passed ; never has our tobacco had so fine a flavor. 



48 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

nor onr corn appeared so beautiful as we behold it to-day. Here is my 
son that I give thee that thou mayest know my heart. I pray thee 
take pity on me and all my nation. Thou knowest the Great Spirit 
who has made us all ; thou speakest to him and hearest his word ; ask 
him to give me life and health, and come and dwell with us that we 
may know him.' Saying this, he placed the little slave near us and 
made us a second present, an all mysterious calumet, which they value 
more than a slave. By this present he showed ns his esteem for our 
governor, after the account we had given of him. By the tliird he 
begged us, on behalf of his whole nation, not to proceed farther on 
account of the great dangers to which we exposed ourselves. 

" I replied that I did not fear death, and that I esteemed no happi- 
ness greater than that of losing my life for the glory of him who made 
us all. But this these poor people could not understand. The coun- 
cil was followed by a great feast which consisted of four courses, which 
we had to take with all their ways. Tlie fii-st course was a great wooden 
dish full of sagamity, — that is to say, of Indian meal boiled in water 
and seasoned with grease. The master of ceremonies, with a spoonful 
of sagamity, presented it three or four times to my mouth, as we would 
do with a little child ; he did the same to M. Jollyet. For the second 
course, he brought in a second dish containing three fish ; he took 
some pains to remove the bones, and having bjown upon it to cool it, 
put it in my mouth as we would food to a bird. For the third course 
they produced a large dog which they had just killed, but, learning 
that we did not eat it, withdrew it. Finally, the fourth course was a 
piece of wild ox, the fattest portions of which were put into our 
mouths. 

" "We took leave of our Illinois about the end of June, and em- 
barked in sight of all the tribe, who admire our little canoes, having 
never seen the like. 

"As we were discoursing, while sailing gently down a beautiful, 
still, clear water, we heard the noise of a rapid into which we were 
about to fall. I have seen nothing more frightful ; a mass of large 
trees, entire, with branches, — real floating islands, — came rushing from 
the mouth of the river Pekitanoiii, so impetuously that we could not, 
without great danger, expose ourselves to pass across. The agitation 
was so great that the water was all muddy and could not get clear.* 

* Pekitanoiii, with the aboriginals, signified " muddy water," on the authority of 
Father I\Iarest, in his letter referred to in a previous note. The present naine. Mis- 
souri, according to Le Page du Pratz, vol. 2. p. 157, was derived from the trilje, Mis- 
souris, whose village was some forty leagues above its mouth, and who massacred a 
French garrison situated in that part of the country. The late statesman and orator, 
Thomas A. Benton, referring to the niuddiness prevailing at all seasons of the year in 
the Missouri River, said that its waters were "too thick to swim in and too thin to 
walk on." 



PLOr AGAINST MARQUETTE'S LIFE. 49 

"After having made about twenty leagues due south, and a little 
less to the southeast, we came to a river called Ouabouskigou, the mouth 
of which is at 36° north.* This river comes from the country on the 
east inhabited by the Chaouanons, in such numbers that they reckon 
as many as twenty-three villages in one district, and fifteen in another, 
lying quite near each other. They are by no means warlike, and are 
the people the Iroquois go far to seek in order to wage an unprovoked 
war upon them ; and as these poor people cannot defend themselves 
they allow themselves to be taken and carried off' like sheep, and, inno- 
cent as they are, do not fail to experience the barbarity of the Iroquois, 
who burn them cruelly.' 

Having- arrived about half a league from Akansea (Arkansas 
River), we saw two canoes coming toward us. The commander was 
standing up holding in his hand a calumet, with which he made signs 
according to the custom of the country. He approached us, singing quite 
agreeably, and invited us to smoke, after which he presented us some 
sagamity and bread made of Indian corn, of which we ate a little. 
AVe fortunately found among them a man who understood Illinois much 
better than the man we brought from Mitchigameh. By means of 
him, I first spoke to the assembly by ordinary presents. They admired 
what I told them of God and the mysteries of our holy faith, and 
showed a great desire to keep me with them to instruct them. 

" We then asked them what they knew of the sea ; they replied 
that we were only ten days' journey from it (we could have made the 
distance in five days); that they did not know the nations who inhab- 
ited it, because their enemies prevented their commerce with those 
Europeans ; that the Indian^ with fire-arms whom we had met were 
their enemies, who cut off the passage to the sea, and prevented their 
making the acquaintance of the Europeans, or having any commerce 
with them ; that besides we should expose ourselves greatly by passing 
on, in consequence of the continual war parties that their enemies sent 
out on the river; since, being armed and used to war, we could not, 
without evident danger, advance on that river which they constantly 
occupy. 

" In the evening the sachems held a secret council on the design of 
some to kill us for plunder, but the chief broke up all these schemes, 
and sending for us, danced the calumet in our presence, and then, to 
remove all fears, presented it to me. 

"M. Jollyet and I held another council to deliberate on what we 
should do, whether we should push on, or rest satisfied with the dis- 

*The Wabash here appears, for the first time, by name. A more extended notice 
of the various names by which this stream has been known will be given farther on. 
4 



50 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

covery that we had made. After having attentively considered that 
we were not far from the Gulf of Mexico, the basin of which is 31° 
40' north, and we at 33° 40'; so that we could not be more than two 
or three days' journey oft"; that the Mississippi undonbtedlj' had its 
mouth in Florida or the Gulf of Mexico, and not on the east in Vir- 
ginia, whose sea-coast is at 34° north, which we had passed, without 
having as yet reached the sea, nor on the western side in California, 
because that would require a west, or west-southwest course, and we 
had always been going south. We considered, moreover, that we 
risked losing the fruit of this voyage, of which we could give no 
information, if we should throw ourselves into the hands of the Span- 
iards, who would undoubtedly at least hold us as prisoners. Besides 
it was clear tliat we were not in a condition to resist Indians allied to 
Europeans, numerous and expert in the use of ftre-arms, who contin- 
ually infested the lower part of the river. Lastly, we had gathered all 
the information that could be desired from the expedition. All these 
reasons induced us to return. This we announced to the Indians, and 
after a day's rest prepared for it. 

"After a month's navigation down the Mississippi, from the 42d to 
below the 34th degree, and after having published the gospel as well 
as I could to the nations I had met, we left the village of Akansea on 
the 17th of July, to retrace our steps. We accordingly ascended the 
Mississippi, which gave us great trouble to stem its currents. We left 
it, indeed, about the 38th degree, to enter another river (the Illinois), 
which greatly shortened our way, and brought us, with little trouble, 
to the lake of the Illinois. 

" We had seen nothing like this river for tlie fertility of the land, its 
prairies, woods, wild cattle, stag, deer, M'ild-cats, bustards, swans, ducks, 
parrots, and even beaver ; its many little lakes and rivers. That on 
which we sailed is broad deep and gentle for sixty-five leagues. 
During the spring and part of the summer, the only portage is half a 
league. 

" We found there an Illinois town called Kaskaskia, composed of 
seventy-four cabins ; they received us well, and compelled me to promise 
them to return and instruct them. One of the chiefs of this tribe, with 
his young men, escorted us to the Illinois Lake, whence at last we 
returned in the close of September to the Bay of the Fetid (Green Bay), 
whence we had set out in the beginning of June. Had all this voyage 
caused but the salvation of a single soul, I should deem all my fatigue 
well repaid, and this I have reason to think, for, when I was returning, 
I passed by the Indians of Peoria. I was three days announcing the 
faith in their cabins, after which, as we were embarking, they brought 



BIOGKAPHY OF JOLIET. 51 

me, oil the water's edge, a dying child, which I baptized a little before 
it expired, by an admirable providence for the salvation of that inno- 
cent soul." 

Count Frontenac, writing from Quebec to M. Colbert, Minister of 
the Marine, at Paris, under date of November 14, 1674, announces that 
"Sieur Joliet, whom Monsieur Talon advised me, on my arrival from 
France, to dispatch for the discovery of the South Sea, has returned three 
months ago. He has discovered some very fine countries, and a navi- 
gation so easy through beautiful rivers he has found, that a person can 
go from Lake Ontario in a bark to the Gulf of Mexico, there being 
only one carrying place (around Niagara Falls), where Lake Ontario 
communicates with Lake Erie. I send you, by my secretary, the map 
which Sieur Joliet has made of the great river he has discovered, and 
the observations he has been able to recollect, as he lost all his minutes 
and journals in the shipwreck he suffered within sight of Montreal, 
where, after having completed a voyage of twelve hundred leagues, 
he was near being drowned, and lost all his papers and a little Indian 
whom he brought from those countries. These accidents have caused 
me great regret."* 

Louis Joliet, or Jolliet, or Jollyet, as the name is variously spelled, 
was the son of Jean Joliet, a wheelwright, and Mary d'Abancour; he 
was born at Quebec in the year 1645. Having finished his studies at 
the Jesuit college he determined to become a member of that order, and 
with that purpose in view took some of the minor orders of the society 
in August, 1662. He completed his studies in 1666, but during this 
time his attention had become interested in Indian affairs, and he laid 
aside all thoughts of assuming the " black gown." That he acquired 
great ability and tact in managing the savages, is apparent from the 
fact of his having been selected to discover the south sea by the way of 
the Mississippi. The map which he drew from memory, and which 
was forwarded by Count Frontenac to France, was afterward attached 
to Marquette's Journal, and was published by Therenot, at Paris, in 
1681. Sparks, in his " Life of Marquette," copies this map, and ascribes 
it to his hero. This must be a mistake, since it differs quite essentially 
from Marquette's map, which has recently been brought to public notice 
by Dr. Shea. 

Joliet's account of the voyage, mentioned by Frontenac, is published 
in Hennepin's " Discovery of a Vast Country in America." It is very 
meagre, and does not present any facts not covered by Marquette's nar- 
rative. 

In 1680 Joliet was appointed hydrographer to the king, and many 
* Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 121. 



52 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST, 

well-drawn maps at Quebec show that his office was no sinecure. After- 
ward, he made a voyage to Hudson's Bay in the interest of the king; 
and as a reward for the faitiiful performance of his duty, he was granted 
the island of Anticosti, which, on account of the fisheries and Indian 
trade, was at that time very valuable. After this, he signed himself 
Joliet d'Anticosty. In the year 1697, he obtained the seignory of 
Joliet on the river Etchemins, south of Quebec. M. Joliet died in 
1701, leaving a wife and four children, the descendants of whom are 
living in Canada still possessed of the seignory of Joliet, among whom 
are Archbishop Taschereau of Quebec and Archbishop Tache of Eed 
River. 

Mount Joliet, on the Desplaines River, above its confluence with the 
Kankakee, and the city of Joliet, in the county of Will, perpetuate 
the name of Joliet in the state of Illinois. 

Jacques Marquette was born in Laon, France, in 1637. His was 
the oldest and one of the most respectable citizen families of the place. 
At the age of seventeen he entered the Society of Jesus; received or- 
ders in 1666 to embark for Canada, arriving at Quebec in September 
of the same year. For two years he remained at Three Rivers, study- 
inof tlie difl^erent Indian dialects under Father Gabriel Druillentes. 
At the end of that period he received ordei-s to repair to the upper 
lakes, which he did, and established the Mission of Sault Ste. Marie. 
The following year Dablon arrived, having been appointed Superior of 
the Ottawa missions ; Marquette then went to the " Mission of the Holy 
Ghost " at the western extremity of Lake Superior ; here he remained 
for two years, and it was his accounts, forwarded from this place, that 
caused Frontenac and Talon to send Joliet on his voyage to the Mis- 
sissippi. The Sioux having dispersed the Algonquin tribes at Lapointe, 
the latter retreated eastward to Mackinaw ; Marquette followed and 
founded there the Mission of St. Ignatius. Here he remained until 
Joliet came, in 1673, with orders to accompany him on his voyage of 
discovery down the Mississippi. Upon his return, Marquette reuiained 
at Mackinaw until October, 1674, when he received orders to carry out 
his pet project of founding the " Mission of the Immaculate Concep- 
tion of the Blessed Virgin " among the Illinois. He immediately set 
out, but owing to a severe dysentery, contracted the year previous, he 
made but slow progress. However, he reached Chicago Creek, De- 
cember 4, where, growing rapidly worse, he was conipelled to winter. 
On the 29th of the following March he set out for the Illinois town, 
on the river of that name. He succeeded in getting there on the 8th 
of April. Being cordially received by the Indians, he was enabled to 
realize his long deferred and much cherished project of establishing 



DEATH OF MARQUETTE. 53 

the " Mission of the Immaculate Conception." Believing that his life 
was drawing to a close, he endeavored to reach Mackinaw before his 
death should take place. But in this hope he was doomed to disap- 
pointment ; by the time he reached Lake Michigan " he was so weak 
that he had to be carried like a child." One Saturda}^, Marquette and 
liis two companions entered a small stream — which still bears his 
name — on the eastern side of Lake Michigan, and in this desolate 
spot, virtually alone, destitute of all the comforts of life, died James 
Marquette. His life-long wish to die a martyr in the holy cause of 
Jesus and the Blessed Virgin, was granted. Thus passed away one of 
the purest and most sacrificing servants of God, — one of the bravest 
and most heroic of men. 

The biographical sketch of Joliet has been collated from a number 
of reliable authorities, and is believed truthful. Our notice of Father 
Marcpiette is condensed from his life as written by Dr. Shea, than 
whom there is no one better qualified to perform the task. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



EXPLORATIONS BY LA SALLE. 



The success of the French, in their plan of colonization, was so 
great, and the trade with the savages, exchanging fineries, guns, knives, 
and, more than all, spirituous liquors for valuable furs, yielded such 
enormous profits, that impetus was given to still greater enterprises. 
They involved no less than the hemming in of the British colonies 
along the Atlantic coast and a conquest of the rich mines in Mexico, 
from the Spanish. These purposes are boldly avowed in a letter of 
M. Talon, the king's enterprising intendant at Quebec, in 1671 ; and 
also in the declarations of the great Colbert, at Paris, " I am,'' says M. 
Talon, in his letter to the king referred to, "no courtier, and assert, 
not through a mere desire to please the king, nor without just reason, 
that this portion of the French monarchy will become something 
grand. What I discover around ma makes me foresee this ; and those 
colonies of foreign nations so long settled on the seaboard already 
tremble with fright, in view of what his majesty has accomj^lished 
here in the interior. The measures adopted to confine them within 
narrow limits, by taking possession, which I have caused to be effected, 
do not allow them to spread, without subjecting themselves, at the 
same time, to be treated as usurpers, and have war waged against them. 
This in truth is what by all their acts the}' seem to greatly fear. They 
already know that your name is spread abroad among the savages 
throughout all those countries, and that they regard your majesty alone 
as the arbitrator of peace and war ; they detach themselves insensibly 
from other Europeans, and excepting the Iroquois, of whom I am not 
as 3'et assured, we can safely promise that the others will take up arms 
whenever we please." " Tlie principal result," says La Salle, i-n his 
memoir at a later day, '* expected from the great perils and labors which 
I underwent in the discovery of the Mississippi was to satisfy the wish 
expressed to me by the late Monsieur Colbert, of finding a port where 
the P'rench might establish themselves and harass the Spaniards in 
those regions from whence they derive all their wealth. The place I 
propose to fortify lies sixty leagues above the mouth of the river Col- 
bert (^. e. Mississippi) in the Gulf of Mexico, and possesses all the 
advantages for such a purpose which can be wished for, both on account 

54 



EARLY LIFE OF LA SALLE. 55 

of its excellent position and the favorable disposition of the savages who 
live in that part of the country."* It is not our province to indulf/e 
in conjectures as to how lar these daring purposes of Talon and Col- 
bert would have succeeded had not the latter died, and their active 
assistant, Robert La Salle, have lost his life, at the hands of an assassin, 
when in the act of executing the preliminary part of the enterprise. 
We turn, rather, to matters of historical record, and proceed with a 
condensed sketch of the life and voyages of La Salle, as it was his dis- 
coveries that led to the colonization of the Mississippi Valley by the 
French. 

La Salle was born, of a distinguished family, at Rouen, France. 
He was consecrated to the service of God in early life, and entered the 
Society of Jesus, in which he remained ten years, laying the foundation 
of moral principles, regular habits and elements of science that served 
him so well in his future arduous undertakings. Like many other 
young men having plans of useful life, he thought Canada would offer 
better facilities to develop them than the cramped and fixed society 
of France. He accordingly left his home, and reached Montreal in 
1666. Being of a resolute and venturesome disposition, he found 
employment in making explorations of the country about the lakes. 
He soon became a favorite of Talon, the intendant, and of Frontenac, 
the governor, at Quebec. He was selected by the latter to take com- 
mand of Fort Frontenac, near the present city of Kingston, on the St. 
Lawrence River, and at that time a dilapidated, wooden structure on 
the frontier of Canada. He remained in Canada about nine years, 
acquiring a knowledge of the country and particularly of the Indian 
tribes, their manners, habits and customs, and winning the confidence 
of the French authorities. He returned to France and presented a 
memoir to the king, in which he urged the necessity of maintaining 
Fort Frontenac, which he offered to restore with a structure of 
stone ; to keep there a garrison equal to the one at Montreal ; to em- 
ploy as many as fifteen laborers during the first year; to clear and till 
the land, and to supply the surrounding Indian villages with Recollect 
missionaries in furtherance of the cause of religion, all at his own ex- 
j^ense, on condition that the king would grant him the right of seigniory 
and a monopoly of the trade incident to it. He further petitioned for 
title of nobility in consideration of voyages he had already made in 
Canada at his own expense, and which had resulted in the great bene- 
fit to the king's colony. The king heard the petition graciously, and 

* Talon's letter to the kin^: Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 73. La Salle's Memoir to 
the kinor, on the necessity of fitting out an expedition to take possession of Louisiana: 
Historical Collections of Louisiana, part 1, p. 5. 



56 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

on the 13th May, 1675, granted La Salle and his heirs Fort Frontenac, 
with four leagues of the adjacent country along the lakes and rivers 
above and helow the fort and a half a league inward, and the adjacent 
islands, with the right of hunting and fishing on Lake Ontario and 
the circumjacent rivers. On the same day, the king issued to La Salle 
letters patent of nobility, having, as the king declares, been informed 
of the worthy deeds performed by the people, either in reducing or 
civilizing the savages or in defending themselves against their frequent 
insults, especially those of the Iroquois ; in despising the greatest dan- 
gers in order to extend the king's name and empire to the extremit}- 
of that new world ; and desiring to reward those who have thus ren- 
dered themselves most eminent; and wishing to treat most favorably 
Robert Cavalier Sieur de La Salle on account of the o^ood and laudable 
report that has been rendered concerning his actions in Canada, the 
king does ennoble and decorate with the title of nobility the said cav- 
alier, together with his wife and children. He left France with these 
precious documents, and repaired to Fort Frontenac, where he per- 
formed the conditions imposed by the terms of his titles. 

He sailed for France again in 1677, and in the following year after 
he and Colbert had fully matured their plans, he again petitioned the 
king for a license to prosecute further discoveries. The king granted 
his request, giving him a permit, under date of May 12, 1678, to en- 
deavor to discover the western part of New France ; the king avowing 
in the letters patent that " he had nothing more at heart than the dis- 
covery of that country where there is a prospect of iinding a way to 
penetrate as far as Mexico," and authorizing La Salle to prosecute dis- 
coveries, and construct forts in such places as he might think necessary, 
and enjoy there the same monopoly as at Fort Frontenac, — all on con- 
dition that the enterprise should be prosecuted at La Salle's expense, 
and completed within five years; that he should not trade with the 
savages, who carried their peltries and beavers to Montreal ; and that 
the governor, intendant, justices, and other officers of the king in New 
France, should aid La Salle in his enterprise.* Before leaving France, 
La Salle, through the Prince de Conti, was introduced to one Henri 
de Tonti, an Italian by birth, who for eight years had been in the 
French service. Having had one of his hands shot off while in Sicily, 
he repaired to France to seek other employment. It was a most for- 
tunate meeting. Tonti — a name that should be prominently associ- 
ated with discoveries in this part of America — became La Salle's 
companion. Ever faithful and courageous, he ably and zealously fur- 

* Vide the petitions of La Salle to, anil the grants from, the king, which are found 
at length in the Paris Documents, vol. 9, pp. 122 to 127. 



LOUIS HENNEPIN. 57 

thered all of La Salle's plans, followed and defended him under the 
most discouraging trials, with an unselfish fidelity that has feM- paral- 
lels in any age. 

Supplied with this new grant of enlarged powers, La Salle, in com- 
pany with Tonti, — or Tonty, as Dr. Sparks says he has seen the name 
written in an autograph letter, — and thirty men, comprising pilots, 
sailors, carpenters and other mechanics, with a supply of material 
necessary for the intended exploration, left France for Quebec. Here 
the party were joined by some Canadians, and the whole force was 
sent forward to Fort Frontenac, at the outlet of Lake Ontario, since 
this fort had been granted to La Salle. He had, in conformity to the 
terms of his letters patent, greatly enlarged and strengthened its de- 
fenses. Here he met Louis Hennepin, a Franciscan Friar, whom it 
seems had been sent thither along M'ith Father Gabriel de la Ribourde 
and Zenobius Membre, all of the same religions order, to accompany 
La Salle's expedition. Li the meantime, Hennepin was occupied in 
pastoral labors among the soldiers of the garrison, and the inhabitants 
of a little hamlet of peasants near by, and proselyting the Lidians of 
the neighboring country. Hennepin, from his own account, had not 
only traveled over several parts of Europe before coming to Canada, 
but since his arrival in America, had spent much time in roaming 
about among the savages, to gi-atify his love of adventure and acquire 
knowledge. 

Hennepin's name and writings are so prominently connected with 
the early history of the Mississippi Yalley, and, withal, his contradic- 
tory statements, made at a later day of his life, as to the extent of his 
own travels, have so clouded his reputation with grave doubt as to his 
regard for truth, that we will turn aside and give the reader a sketch 
of this most singular man and his claims as a discoverer. He was 
bold, courageous, patient and hopeful under the most trying fatigues ; 
and had a taste for the privations and dangers of a life among the 
savages, whose ways and caprices he well understood, and knew how 
to turn them to insure his own safety. He was a shrewd observer and 
possessed a faculty for that detail and little minutio?, which make a 
narrative racy and valuable. He M-as vain and much given to self- 
glorification. He accompanied La Salle, in the first voyage, as far as 
Peoria Lake, and he and Father Zenobe Membre are the historians of 
that expedition. From Peoria Lake he went down the Illinois, under 
orders from La Salle, and up the Mississippi beyond St. Anthony's 
Falls, giving this name to the falls. This interesting voyage was not 
prosecuted voluntarily ; for Llennepin and his two companions were 
captured by the Sioux and taken up the river as prisoners, often in 



58 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

great peril of their lives. He saw La Salle no more, after parting with 
him at Peoria Lake. He was released from caj^tivity through the 
intervention of IMons. Duhith, a French Courenr de I>ois, who had 
previously estal)lished a trade with the Sioux, on the upper Mississippi, 
by way of Lake Sujierior. After liis escape, Hennepin descended the 
Mississippi to the mouth of the Wisconsin, which he ascended, made 
the portage at the head of Fox River, thence to Green Bay and Mack- 
inaw, hy the route pursued by Joliet and Marquette on their way to 
the Mississippi, seven years before. From Mackinaw he proceeded to 
France, where, in 1683, he puldished, under royal authority, an account 
of his travels. For refusing to obe}^ an order of his superiors, to return 
to America, he was banished from Fi-ance. He went to Holland and 
obtained the favor and patronage of William III, king of England, to 
whose service, as he himself says, " he entirely devoted himself."' Li 
Llolland, he received money and sustenance from Mi-. Blathwait, King 
William's secretary of war, while engaged in preparing a new volume 
of his voyages, which was published at Utrecht, in 1697, and dedicated 
"To His Most Excellent Majesty William the Third." The revised 
edition contains substantially all of the first, and a great deal l)esides; 
for in this last work Hennepin lays claim, for the first time, to having 
gone doion the Mississippi to its mouth, thus seeking to deprive La 
Salle of the glorj^ attaching to his name, on account of this very dis- 
covery. La Salle had now been dead about fourteen years, and from 
the time he went down the Mississippi, in 1682, to the hour of his 
death, although his discovery was well known, especially to Hennepin, 
the latter never laid any claim to having anticipated him in the discov- 
ery. Besides, Hennepin's own account, after so long a silence, of his 
pretended voyage down the river is so utterly inconsistent with itself, 
especially with respect to'dates and the impossibility of his traveling 
the distances M-ithin the time he alleges, that the story carries its own 
refutation. For this mendacious act. Father Hennepin has merited the 
severest censures of Charlevoix, Jared Sparks, Francis Parkman, Dr. 
Shea and other historical critics. 

His first work is generally regarded as authority. That he did go 
up the Mississippi river there seems to be no controversy, while grave 
doubts prevail as to many statements in his last publication, which 
would otherwise pass without suspicion were they not found in com- 
pany with statements known to be untrue. 

Li the preface to his last work, issued in 1607, P^ather Hennepin 
assigns as a reason why he did not publish his descent of the Missis- 
sippi in his volume issued in 1683, "that I was obliged to say nothing 
of the course of the Mississippi, from the mouth (»f the Illinois down 



HENNEPIN AND LA SALLE. 59 

to the sea, for fear of disobliging M. La Salle, with whom I began my 
discovery. This gentleman, alone, would have the glory of having dis- 
covered the course of that river. But when he heard that I had done 
it two years before him he could never forgive me, though, as I have 
said, I was so modest as to publish nothing of it. This was the true 
cause of his malice against me, and of the barbarous usage I met with 
in France." 

Still, his description of places he did visit; the aboriginal names 
and geographical features of localities ; his observations, especially upon 
the manners and customs of the Indians, and other facts which he had 
no motive to misrepresent, are generally regarded as true in his last as 
well as in his first publication. His works, indeed, are the only repos- 
itories of many interesting particulars relating to the northwest, and 
authors quote from him, some indiscriminately and others with more 
caution, while all criticise him without measure, 

Hennepin was born in Belgium in 1640, as is supposed, and died 
at Utrecht, Holland, within a few years after issuing his last book. This 
was republished in London in 1698, the translation into English being 
wretchedly executed. The book, aside from its historical value and the 
notoriety attaching to it because of the new claims Hennepin makes, 
is quite a curiosity. It is made up of Hennepin's own travels, blended 
with his fictitious discoveries, scraps and odd ends taken from the 
writings of other travelers without giving credit ; the whole embellished 
with plates and a map inserted by the bookseller, and the text empha- 
sized with italics and displayed type; all designed to render it a speci- 
men, as it probably was in its day, of the highest skill attained in the 
art of book-making. 

La Salle brought up the St. Lawrence to Fort Frontenac the 
anchors, cordage and other material to be used in the vessel which he 
designed to construct above the Falls of Niagara for navigating the 
western lakes. He already had three small vessels on Lake Ontario, 
which he had made use of in a coasting trade with the Indians. One 
of these, a brigantine of ten tons, was loaded with his effects; his men, 
including Fathers Gabriel, Zenobius Membre and Hennepin, who were, 
as Father Zenobia declares, commissioned with care of the spiritual 
direction of the expedition, were placed aboard, and on the 18th of 
November the vessel sailed westward for the Niagara River. They 
kept the northern shore, and run into land and bartered for corn with 
the Iroquois at one of their villages, situated where Toronto, Canada, 
is located, and for fear of being frozen up in the river, which here 
empties into the lake, had to cut the ice from about their ship. Detained 
by adverse winds, they remained here until the wind was favorable, 



60 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. ' 

when they sailed across the end of the lake and found an ?lnchorage in 
the month of Niagara River on the 6th of Deceniher. The season M-as 
far advanced, and the ground covered with snow a foot deep. Large 
masses of ice were floating down the river endangering the vessel, and 
it was necessary to take measures to give it security. Accordingly the 
vessel was hauled with cables u]) against the strong current. One of 
the cables broke, and the vessel itself caine very near being broken to 
pieces or carried away by the ice, which was grinding its way to the 
open lake. Finally, by sheer force of human strength, the vessel was 
dragged to the shore, and moored with a strong hawser under a protect- 
ing clift'out of danger from the floating ice. A cabin, protected with 
palisades, for shelter and to serve as a magazine to store the supplies, 
was also constructed. The ground was frozen so hard that it had to be 
thawed out with boiling water before the men could drive stakes into it. 

The movements of La Salle excited, flrst the curiosity of the Iro- 
quois Indians, in whose countrj' he was an intruder, and then their jeal- 
ousy became aroused as they began to fear he intended the erection of a 
fort. The Sieur de La Salle, says the frank and modest-minded Father 
Zenobe Membre, " with his usual address met the principal Iroc[Uois 
chiefs in conference, and gained them so completely that they not only 
afirreed, but oflfered, to contribute with all their means to the execu- 
tion of his designs. The conference lasted for some time. La Salle 
also sent many canoes to trade north and south of the lake among 
these tribes." Meanwhile La Salle's enemies were busy in thwarting 
his plans. They insinuated themselves among the Indians in the 
vicinity of Niagara, and filled their ears with all sorts of stories to La 
Salle's discredit, and aroused feelings of such distrust that work on the 
fort, or depot for supplies, had to be suspended, and La Salle content 
himself with a house surrounded by palisades. 

A place was selected above the falls,* on the eastern side of the 
river, for the construction of the new vessel. 

The ground was cleared away, trees Avere felled, and the carpen- 
ters set to work. The keel of the vessel was laid on the 20th of Jan- 
uarv, and some of the plank being ready to fasten on. La Salle drove 
the first spike. As the work progressed. La Salle made several trips, over 
ice and snow, and later in the spriiig with vessels, to Fort Frontenac, to 
hurry forward provisions and material. One of his vessels was lost on 
Lake Ontario, heavily laden with a cargo of valuable supplies, through 
the fault or willful perversity of her pilots. The disappointment over this 
calamity, says Hennepin, would have dissuaded any other person than 

♦Francis Parkman, in his valuable work, "The Discovery of the Great West," 
p. 133, locates the spot at the mouth of Cayuga Creek on the American shore. 



THE FIRST SAIL ON LAKE ERIE. 61 

La Salle from the further prosecution of the enterprise. The men 
worked industriously on the ship. The most of the Iroquois having 
gone to war with a nation on the northern side of Lake Erie, the few 
remaining behind were become less insolent than before. Still they 
lingered about where the work was going on, and continued expres- 
sions of discontent at what the French were doing. One of them let 
on to be drunk and attempted to kill the blacksmith, but the latter 
repulsed the Lidian with a piece of iron red-hot from the forge. The 
Indians threatened to burn the vessel on the stocks, and might have 
done so were it not constantly guarded. Much of the time the only 
food of the men was Indian corn and tish ; the distance to Fort Fron- 
tenac and the inclemency of the winter rendering it out of power to 
procure a supply of other or better provisions. 

The frequent alarms from the Indians, a want of wholesome food, 
the loss of the vessel with its promised supplies, and a refusal of the 
neighboring tribes to sell any more of their corn, reduced the party to 
such extremities that the ship-carpenters tried to run away. They 
were, however, persuaded to remain and prosecute their work. Two 
Mohegan Indians, successful hunters in La Salle's service, were fortu- 
nate enough to bring in some wild goats and other game they had 
killed, which e^reatlv encourao;ed the workmen to go on with their task 
more briskly than before. The vessel was completed within six months 
from the time its keel was laid. The ship was gotten afloat before en- 
tirely finished, to prevent the designs of the natives to burn it. She 
was sixty tons burthen, and called the " Griflin," a name given it by 
La Salle by way of a compliment to Count Frontenac, whose armorial 
bearings were supported by two griffins. Three guns were lired, and 
"7e Deums''^ chanted at the christening, and prayers offered up for a 
prosperous voyage. The air in the wild forest rung with shouts of 
joy ; even the Iroquois, looking suspiciously on, were seduced with 
alluring draughts of brandy to lend their deep-mouthed voices to the 
happy occasion. The men left their cabins of bark and swung their 
hammocks under the deck of the ship, where they could rest with 
greater security from the savages than on the shore. 

The Griffin, under press of a favorable breeze, and with the help 
of twelve men on the shore pulling at tow-ropes, was forced up against 
the strong current of the Niagara River to calmer waters at the en- 
trance of the lake. On the 7th of August, 1679, her canvas was spread, 
and the pilot steering by the compass, the vessel, with La Salle and his 
thirty odd companions and their effects aboard, sailed out westward 
upon the unknown, silent waters of Lake Erie. In three daj'S they 
reached the mouth of Detroit Kiver. Father Hennepin was fairly 



62 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

delighted with the country along this river — it was " so well situated 
and the soil so fertile. Vast meadows extending back from the strait 
and terminating at the uplands, which were clad with vineyards, and 
])lum and pear and other fruit-bearing trees of nature's own planting, all 
so well arranged that one would think they could not have been so dis- 
posed without the help of art. The country was also well stocked 
with deer, bear, wild goats, turkeys, and other animals and birds, that 
supplied a most relishing food. The forest comprised walnut and 
other timber in abundance suitable for building purposes. So charmed 
was he with the prospect that he " endeavored to persuade La Salle to 
settle at the ' De Troit,' " it being in the midst of so man}' savage na- 
tions among whom a good trade could be estabMshed. La Salle would 
not listen to this proposal. He said he would make no settlement 
within one hundred leagues of Frontenac, lest other Europeans would 
be before them in the new country they were going to discover. This, 
says Hennepin, was the pretense of La Salle and the adventurers who 
were with him ; for I soon discovered that their intention was to buy all 
the furs and skins of the remotest savages M'ho, as they thought, did 
not know their value, and thus enrich themselves in one single voyage. 
On Lake Huron the Griffin encountered a storm. The main-yards 
and topmast were blown away, giving the ship over to the mercy of 
the winds. There was no harbor to run into for shelter. La Salle, 
although a courageous man, gave way to his fears, and said they all 
were undone. Everyone thereupon fell upon their knees to say pray- 
ers and prepare for death, except the pilot, \vlio cursed and swore all 
the while at La Salle for bringing him there to perish in a nasty lake, 
after he had acquired so much renown in a long and successful naviga- 
tion on the ocean. The storm abated, and on the 27th of August, the 
Griffin resumed her course northwest, and was carried on the evening 
of the same day beyond the island of Mackinaw to point St. Ignace, 
and safely anchored in a bay that is sheltered, except from the south, 
by the projecting mainland. 



CHAPTER IX. 

LA SALLE'S VOYAGE CONTINUED. 

St. Ignace, or Mackiiuiw, as previously stated, had become a princi- 
pal center of the Jesuit missions, and it had also grown into a head- 
quarters for an extensive Indian trade. Duly licensed traders, as well 
as the Coureurs de Bois, — men who had run wild, as it were, and by 
their intercourse with the nations had thrown off all restraints of 
civilized life, — resorted to this vicinity in considerable numbers. These, 
lost to all sense of national pride, instead of sustaining took every 
measure to thwart La Salle's plans. They, with some of the dissatis- 
fied crew, represented to the Indians that La Salle and his associates 
were a set of dangerous and ambitious adventurers, who meant to 
engross all the trade in furs and skins and invade their liberties. These 
jealous and meddlesome busy bodies had alread}', before the arrival of 
the Griffin, succeeded in seducing fifteen men from La Salle's service, 
whom with others, he had sent forward the previous spring, under 
command of Tonty, with a stock of merchandise ; and, instead of 
going to the tribes beyond and preparing the Avay for a friendly recep- 
tion of La Salle, as they were ordered to do, they loitered about 
Mackinaw the whole summer and squandered the goods, in spite of 
Tonty's persistent efforts to urge them forward in the performance of 
their duty. La Salle sent out other parties to trade with the natives, 
and these went so far, and were so busy in bartering for and collect- 
ing furs, that they did not return to Mackinaw until November. It 
was now getting late and La Salle was warned of the dangerous storms 
that sweep the lakes at the beginning of winter ; he resolved, therefore, 
to continue his voyage without waiting the return of his men. He 
weighed anchor and sailed westward into Lake Michigan as far as the 
islands at the entrance of Green Bay, then called the Pottawatomie 
Islands, for the reason that they were then occupied by bands of that 
tribe. On one of these islands La Salle found some of the men 
belonging to his advance party of traders, and who, having secured a 
large quantity of valuable furs, had long and impatiently waited his 
coming. 

La Salle, as is already apparent, determined to engage in a fur trade 
that already and legitimately belonged to merchants operating at 

63 



64 HISTORIC NOTES OX THE NORTHWEST. 

Montreal, and with wliich tlie terms of his own license prohibited his 
interfering. Without asking- anv one's advice lie resolved to load his 
ship with furs and send it back to Niagara, and the furs to Quebec, and 
out of the proceeds of the sale to discharge some very pressing debts. 
The pilot with tive men to man the vessel were ordered to proceed with 
the Griffin to Niagara, and return with all imaginable speed and join La 
Salle at the mouth of the St. Joseph River, near the southern shore of 
Lake Michigan. The Griffin did not go to Green Ba_Y City, as many 
writers have assumed in hasty perusals of the original authorities, or 
even penetrate the body of water known as Green Bay beyond the 
chain of islands at its mouth. 

The resolution of La Salle, taken, it seems, on the spur of the 
moment, to send his ship back down the lakes, and prosecute his 
voyage the I'est of the way to the head of Lake Michigan in frail 
birchen canoes, was a most unfortunate measure. It delayed his 
discoveries two years, brought severe hardships upon himself and 
greatly embarrassed all his future plans. The Griffin itself was lost, 
with all her cargo, valued at sixty thousand livres. She, nor her crew, 
was ever heard of after leaving the Pottawatomie Lslands. What 
became of the ship and men in charge remains to this day a mystery, 
or veiled in a cloud of conjecture. La Salle himself, says Francis 
Parkman, "grew into a settled conviction that the Griffin had been 
treacherously sunk by the pilot and sailors to whom he had intrusted 
her; and he thought he had, in after-years, found evidence that the 
authors of the crime, laden with the merchandise they had taken from 
her, had reached the Mississippi and ascended it, hoping to join Du 
Shut, the famous chief of the Conreurs de Bois, and enrich them- 
selves by traffic with the northern tribes.* 

The following is, substantially, Hennepin's account of La Salle's 
canoe voyage from the mouth of Green Bay south, along the shore of 
Lake Michigan, past Milwaukee and Chicago, and around the southern 
end of the lake ; thence north along the eastern shore to the mouth ot 
the St. Joseph River ; thence up the St. Joseph to South Bend, mak- 
ing the portage here to the head-waters of the Kankakee ; thence down 
the Kankakee and Illinois through Peoria Lake, with an account of 
the buildmg of Fort Crevecceur. Hennepin's narrative is full of in- 
teresting detail, and contains many interesting observations upon the 
condition of the country, the native inhabitants as they appeared nearly 
two hundred 3'ears ago. The privation and suffering to which La Salle 
and his party were exposed in navigating Lake Michigan at that early 
day, and late in the fall of the year, when the waters were vexed with 
* Discovery of the Great West, p. 169. 



FIRST VOYAGE ON LAKE MICHIGAN, 65 

tempestuous storms, illustrate the courage and daring of the under- 
taking. 

Their suft'ering did not terminate with their voyage uj)on the lake. 
Difficulties of another kind were experienced on the St. Joseph, Kan- 
kakee anil Illinois Rivers. Hennepin's is, perhaps, the first detailed 
account we have of this part of the "Great West,'' and is therefore of 
ffi'eat interest and value on this account. 

"We left the Pottawatomies to continue our voyage, being fourteen 
men in all, in four canoes. I had charge of the smallest, which carried 
five hundredweight and two men. My companions being recently 
from Europe, and for that reason being unskilled in the management 
of these kind of boats, its whole charge fell upon me in stormy 
weather. 

" The canoes were laden with a smith's forge, utensils, tools for car- 
penters, joiners and sawyers, besides our goods and arms. We steered 
to the south tow^ard the mainland, from which the Pottawatomie 
Islands are distant some forty leagues ; but about midway, and in the 
night time, w-e were greatly endangered by a sudden storm. The 
waves dashed into our canoes, and the night was so dark we had great 
difficulty in keeping our canoes together. The daylight coming on, 
we reached the shore, where we remained for four days, waiting for the 
lake to grow calm. In the meantime our Indian hunter went in quest 
of game, but killed nothing other than a porcupine ; this, however, 
made our Indian corn more relishing. The weather beeoming fair, we 
resumed our voyage, rowing all day and well into the night, along the 
western coast of the Lake of the Illinois. The wind again grew to fresh, 
and we landed upon a rocky beach where we had nothing to protect 
ourselves against a storm of snow and rain except the clothing on our 
persons. We remained here two days for the sea to go down, hav- 
ing made a little fire from wood cast ashore by the waves. We pro- 
ceeded on our voyage, and toward evening the winds again forced us 
to a beach covered with rushes, where we remained three days ; and in 
the meantime our provisions, consisting only of pumpkins and Indian 
corn purchased from the Pottawatomies, entirely gave out. Our 
canoes w^ere so heavily laden that we could not carry provisions with 
us, and we were compelled to rely on bartering for such supplies on 
our way. We left this dismal place, and after twelve leagues rowing 
came to another Pottawatomie village, whose inhabitants stood upon 
the beach to receive us. But M. La Salle refused to let anyone land, 
notwithstanding the severity of the weather, fearing some of his men 
might run away. We were in such great peril that La Salle flung 
himself into the water, after we had gone some three leagues farther, 
5 



G6 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

and with tlie aid of his three men carried the canoe of wliicli he had 
charge to the shore, u})on their shoulders, otherwise it would have l)een 
broken to pieces by the waves. We were obliged to do the same with 
the other canoes. I, myself, carried good Father Gabriel upon my 
back, his age being so well advanced as not to admit of his ventur- 
ing in the water. "We took ourselves to a piece of rising ground to 
avoid surprise, as we had no manner of acquaintance with the great 
number of savages whose village was near at hand. "We sent three 
men into the village to buy provisions, under protection of the calu- 
met or pipe of peace, which the Indians at Pottawatomie Islands had 
presented us as a means of introduction to, and a measure of safety 
against, other tribes that we might meet on our way." 

The calumet has always been a symbol of amity among all the In- 
dian tribes of North America, and so uniformly used by them in all 
their negotiations with their own race, and Eui'opeans as well ; and 
Father Hennepin's description of it, and the respect that is accorded to 
its presence, are so truthful that we here insert his account of it at 
length : 

" This calumet," says Father Hennepin, " is the most mysterious 
thing among the savages, for it is used in all important transactions. 
It is nothing else, however, than a large tobacco pipe, made of red, 
black, or white stone. The head is highly polished, and the quill or 
stem is usually about two feet in length, made of a pretty strong reed 
or cane, decorated with highly colored feathers interlaced with locks of 
women's hair. Wings of gaudily plumaged birds are tied to it, mak- 
ing the calumet look like the wand of Mercury, or staff which ambas- 
sadors of state formerly carried when they went to conduct treaties of 
peace. The stem is sheathed in the skin of the neck of birds called 
'■ Hilars'' (probably the loon), which are as large as our geese, and 
spotted with white and black ; or else with those of a duck (the little 
wood duck whose neck presents a beautiful contrast of colors) that 
make their nests upon trees, although the water is their ordinary ele- 
ment, and whose feathers are of many different colors. However, 
eveiy tribe ornament their calumets according to their own fancy, with 
the feathers of such birds as they may have in their own country. 

"A pipe, such as 1 have described, is a pass of safe conduct among all 
the allies of the tribe which has given it ; and in all embassies it is car- 
ried as a symbol of peace, and is always respected as such, for the sav- 
ages believe some great misfortune would speedily befall them if they 
violated the public faith of the calumet. All their enterprises, declara- 
tions of war, treaties of peace, as M-ell as all of the rest of their cere- 
monies, are sealed with the calumet. The pipe is filled with the best 



CANOE VOYAGE ON LAKE MICHIGAN. 67 

tobacco they have, and then it is presented to those with wliom they 
are about to conduct an important atl'air; and after they liave smoked 
out of it, the one offerinu' it does the same. I would have perished," 
concludes Hennepin, " had it not been for the calumet. Our three 
men, carrying the calumet and being well armed, went to the little 
village about three leagues from the place where we landed ; they 
found no one at home, for the inhabitants, having heard that we refused 
to land at the other village, supposed we were enemies, and had aban- 
doned their habitations. In their absence our men took some of their 
corn, and left instead, some goods, to let them know we were neither 
their enemies nor robbers. Twenty of the inhabitants of this village 
came to our encampment on the beach, armed with axes, small guns, 
bows, and a sort of club, which, in their language, means a head- 
breaker. La Salle, with four well-armed men, advanced toward them 
for the purpose of opening a conversation. He requested them to come 
near to us, saying he had a party of hunters out who might come 
across them and take their lives. They came forward and took seats 
at the foot of an eminence, where we were encamped ; and La Salle 
amused them with the relation of his voyage, which he informed them 
he had undertaken for their advantage ; and thus occupied their time 
until the arrival of the three men who had been sent out with the 
calumet; on seeing which the savages gave a great shout, arose to their 
feet and danced about. We excused our men from having taken some 
of their corn, and informed them that we had left its true value in 
goods ; they were so well pleased with this that they immediately sent 
for more corn, and on the next day they made us a gift of as much as 
we could conveniently find room for in our canoes. 

'• The next day morning the old men of the tribe came to us with 
their calumet of peace, and entertained us with a free offering of wild 
goats, which their own hunters had taken. In return, we presented 
them our thanks, accompanied with some axes, knives, and several little 
toys for their wives, with all which they were very much pleased. 

" We left this place and continued our voyage along the coast of 
the lake, which, in places, is so steep that we often found it difficult to 
obtain a landing; and the wind was so violent as to oblige us to carry 
our canoes sometimes upon top of the bluff, to prevent their being- 
dashed in pieces. The stormy weather lasted four days, causing us 
much suffering ; for every time we made the shore we had to wade 
in the water, carrying our effects and canoes upon our shoulders. The 
water being very cold, most of us were taken sick. Our provisions 
again failed us, which, with the fatigues of rowing, made old Father 
Gabriel faint away in such a manner that we despaired of his life. 



G8 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

With a use of a decoction of hyacinth I liad with nie, and which I 
found of great service on onr voyage, lie was restored to his senses. 
We had no other subsistence but a handful of corn per man every 
twenty-four hours, which w^e parched or boiled ; and, although reduced 
to such scanty diet, we rowed our canoes almost daily, from morning 
to night. Our men found some hawthorns and other wild berries, 
of which they ate so freely that most of them were taken sick, and we 
imagined that they were poisoned. 

" Yet the more we suffered, the more, bj' God's grace, did I become 
stronger, so that 1 could oiitrow the other canoes. Being in great dis- 
tress, He, who takes care of his meanest creatures, provided us with 
an unexpected relief. We saw over the land a great many ravens 
and eagles circling in mid-air; from whence we conjectured there was 
prey near by. We landed, and, upon search, found the half of a wild 
goat which the wolves had strangled. This provision was very ac- 
cei)table, and the rudest of our men could not but praise a kind Provi- 
dence, who took such particular care of us. 

" Having thus refreshed ourselves, we continued our voyage directly 
to the southern part of the lake, every day the country becoming liner 
and the climate more temperate. On the 16th of October we fell in 
with abundance of game. Our Indian hunter killed several deer and 
wild goats, and our men a great many big fat turkey-cocks, with 
which we regaled ourselves for several days. On the 18th we came to 
the farther end of the lake.* Here we landed, and our men were sent 
out to prospect the locality, and found great quantities of ripe grapes, 
the fruit of which were as large as damask plums. We cut down the 
trees to gather the grapes, out of which we made pretty good wine, 
which we put into gourds, used as flasks, and buried them in the sand 
to keep the contents from turning sour. Many of the trees here are 
loaded witli vines, which, if cultivated, would make as good wine as 
any in Europe. The fruit w'as all the more relishing to us, because we 
wanted bread." 

Other travelers besides Hennepin, passing this locality at an early 
day, also mention the same .fact. It would seem, therefore, that Lake 
Michigan had the same modifying influence upon, and equalized the 
temperature of, its eastern shore, rendering it as famous for its wild 
fruits and grapes, two hundred years ago, as it has since become noted 
for the abundance and perfection of its cultivated varieties. 

" Our men discovered prints of men's feet. The men were ordered 

* From the description given of the country, the time occupied, and forest growth, 
the voyagers must now be eastward of Michigan City, and where the lake shore trends 
more rapidly to the north. 



SAVAGES PLUNDER LA SALLE. 69 

to he upon guard and make no noise. In spite of this precaution, one 
of our men, finding a hear ujjon a tree, shot him dead and dragged 
him into camp. La Salle was very angry at this indiscretion, and, to 
avoid surprise, placed sentinels at the canoes, under which our effects 
had been put for protection against the rain. There was a hunting 
party of Fox Indians from the vicinity of Green Bay, about one hun- 
dred and twenty in number, encamped near to us, who, having heard 
the noise of the gun of the man who shot the bear, became alarmed, 
and sent out some of their men to discover who we were. These 
spies, creeping upon their bellies, and observing great silence, came 
in the night-time and stole the coat of La Salle's footman and some 
goods secreted under the canoes. The sentinel, hearing a noise, gave the 
alarm, and we all ran to our arms. On being discovered, and thinking 
our numbers were greater than we really were, they cried out, in 
the dark, that they were friends. We answered, friends did not visit 
at such unseasonable hours, and that their actions were more like 
those of robbers, who designed to plunder and kill us. Their headsman 
replied that they heard the noise of our gun, and, as they knew that 
none of the neighboring tribes possessed firearms, they supposed we 
were a war party of Iroquois, come with the design of murdering 
them ; but now that they learned we were Frenchmen from Canada, 
whom they loved as their own brethren, they would anxiously wait 
until daylight, so that they could smoke out of our calumet. This is a 
compliment among the savages, and the highest mark they can give of 
their affection. 

" We appeared satisfied with their reasons, and gave leave to four of 
their old men, only, to come into our camp, telling thera we would not 
permit a greater number, as their young men were much given to 
stealing, and that we would not suffer such indignities. Accordingly, 
four of their old men came among us ; we entertained them until 
morning, when they departed. After they were gone, we found out 
about the robbery of the canoes, and La Salle, well knowing the genius 
of the savages, saw, if he allowed this affront to pass without resenting 
it, that we would be constantly exposed to a renewal of like indigni- 
ties. Therefore, it was resolved to exact prompt satisfaction. La 
Salle, with four of his men, went out and captured two of the Indian 
hunters. One of the prisoners confessed the robbery, with the cir- 
cumstances connected with it. The thief M-as detained, and his comrade 
was released and sent to his band to tell their headsman that the cap- 
tive in custody would be ])ut to death unless the stolen propertj' were 
returned. 

" The savages were greatly perplexed at La Salle's peremptory mes- 



70 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

sage. They could not comply, for they had cut up the goods and coat 
and divided among themselves the pieces and the buttons; they there- 
fore resolved to rescue their man by force. The next day, October 
30, they advanced to attack us. The peninsula we were encamped 
on was separated from the forest where the savages lay by a little sandy 
plain, on which and near the wood were two or three eminences. La 
Salle determined to take possession of the most prominent of these 
elevations, and detached five of his men to occupy it, following him- 
self, at a short distance, with all of his force, every one having rolled 
their coats about the left arm, which was held up as a protection 
against the arrows of the savages. Only eight of the enemy had iire- 
arms. The savages were frightened at our advance, and their young 
men took behind the trees, but their captains stood their ground, while 
we moved forward and seized the knoll. I left the two other Francis- 
cans reading the usual prayers, and went about among the men ex- 
horting them to their duty ; I had been in some battles and sieges in 
Europe, and was not afraid of these savages, and La Salle was highly 
pleased with my exhortations, and their influence upon his men. When 
I considered what might be the result of the quarrel, and how much 
more Christian-like it would be to prevent the effusion of blood, and 
end the difficulty in a friendly manner, I went toward the oldest 
savage, who, seeing me unarmed, supposed I came with designs of a 
mediator, and received me with civility. In the meantime one of our 
men observed that one of the savages had a piece of the stolen cloth 
wrapped about his head, and he went up to the savage and snatched 
the cloth away. This vigorous action so much terrified the savages that, 
although they were near six score against eleven, they presented me 
with the pipe of peace, which I received. M. La Salle gave his word 
that they might come to him in security. Two of their old men came 
forward, and in a speech disapproved the conduct of their young men ; 
that they could not restore the goods taken, but that, having been cut 
to pieces, they could only return the articles which were not spoiled, 
and pay for the rest. The orators presented, with their speeches, some 
garments made of beaver skins, to appease the wrath of M. La Salle, 
who, frowning a little, informed them that while he designed to wrong 
no one, he did not intend others should affront or injure him ; but, inas- 
much as they did not approve what their young men had done, and were 
willing to make restitution for the same, he would accept their gifts and 
become their friend. The conditions were fully complied with, and 
peace happily concluded without farther hostility. 

" The day was spent in dancing, feasting and speech-making. The 
chief of the band had taken particular notice of the behavior of the 



INDIAN SPEECH TO THE GRAY-COATS. 71 

Franciscans. ' These gray-coats,'* said the cliief of the Foxes, ' we 
value very much. They go barefooted as well as we. They scorn our 
beaver gowns, and decline all other presents. They do not carry arms 
to kill us. They flatter and make much of our children, and give them 
knives and other toys without expecting any reward. Those of our 
tribe who have been to Canada tell us that Onnotio (so they call the 
Governor) loves them very much, and that the Fathers of the Gown 
have given up all to come and see us. Therefore, you who are captain 
over all these men, be pleased to leave with us one of these gray-coats, 
whom we will conduct to our village when we shall have killed what 
we design of the buffaloes. Thou art also master of these warriors ; 
remain with us, instead of going among the Illinois, who, already 
advised of your coming, are resolved to kill you and all of your 
soldiers. And how can you resist so powerful nation ? ' 

" The day November 1st we again embarked on the lake, and came 
to the mouth of the river of the Miamis, which comes from the south- 
east and falls into the lake." 

* While the Jesuit Fathers wore black gowns as a distinctive mark of their sect, the 
Recollects, or Franciscan missionaries, wore coats of gray. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE SEVERAL MTAMIS-LA SALLE'S VOYAGE DOWN THE ILLINOIS. 

Much confusion has ai'isen because, at different periods, the name 
of " Miami" has been applied to no less than five different rivers, viz. : 
The St. Joseph, of Lake Michigan ; the Maumee, often designated as 
the Miami of the Lakes, to distinguish it from the Miami which falls 
into the Ohio River below Cincinnati ; then there is the Little Miami 
of the Ohio emptying in above its greater namesake; and finally 
the "Wabash, which with more propriety bore the name of the 
"Kiver of the Miamis." The French, it is assumed, gave the name 
" Miami " to the river emptying into Lake Michigan, for the reason that 
there was a village of that tribe on its banks before and at the time of La 
Salle's first visit, as already noted on page 24. The name was not of 
long duration, for it was soon exchanged for that of St. Joseph, b}^ which 
it has ever since been known. La Llontan is the last authority who 
refers to it by the name of Miami. Shortly after the year named, the 
date being now nnknown, a Catholic mission was established up the 
river, and, Charlevoix says, about six leagues below the portage, at 
South Bend, and called the Mission of St. Joseph ; and from this cir- 
cumstance, we may safely infer, the river acquired the same name. It 
is not known, either, by whom the Mission of St, Joseph was organ- 
ized ; very probably, however, by Father Claude Allouez. This good 
man, and to whose writings the people of the west are so largely 
indebted for many valuable historical reminiscences, seems to have been 
forgotten in the respect that is showered upon other more conspicuous 
though less meritorious characters. The Mission of the Immaculate 
Conception, after Manpiette's death, remained unoccupied for the space 
of two years, then Claude Jean Allouez received orders to proceed 
thither from the Mission of St, James, at the town of Maskoutens, on 
Fox River, Wisconsin. Leaving in October, IGTG, on account of an 
exceptionally early winter, he was compelled to delay his journey nntil 
the following February, when he again started ; reaching Lake Mich- 
igan on the eve of St. Joseph, he called the lake after this saint. 
Embarking on the lake on the 23d of March, and coasting along the 
western shore, after numerous delays occasioned by ice and storm, he 
arrived at Chicago River. He then made the portage and entered the 

72 



LA SALLE REACHES THE ST. JOSEPH. 73 

Kaskaskia village, M'hicli was probably near Peoria Lake, on the 8th of 
April, 1077. The Indians gave him a very cordial reception, and 
flocked from all directions to the town to hear the "Black Gown" 
relate the truths of Christianity. For the glorification of God and the 
Blessed Virgin Immaculate, Allouez " erected, in the midst of the 
village, a cross twenty-five feet high, chanting the Vexilla Regis in the 
presence of an admiring and respectful throng of Indians ; he covered 
it with garlands of beautiful flowers."* Father Allouez did not remain 
but a short time at the mission ; leaving it that spring he returned in 
1078, and continued there until La Salle's arrival in the winter of 
1079-80. The next succeeding decade Allouez passed either at this 
mission or at the one on St. Joseph's River, on the eastern side of Lake 
Michigan, where he died in 1090. Bancroft says: '^Allouez has 
imperishably connected his name with the progress of discovery in the 
West ; unhonorcd among us now, he was not inferior in zeal and ability 
to any of the great missionaries of his time." 

We resume Hennepin's narrative: 

"We had appointed this place (the mouth of the St. Joseph) for our 
rendezvous before leaving the outlet of Green Bay, and expected to 
meet the twenty men we had left at Mackinaw, who, being ordered to 
come by the eastern coast of the lake, had a much shorter cut than we, 
who came by the western side ; besides this, their canoes were not so 
heavily laden as ours. Still, we found no one here, nor any signs that 
they had been here before us.f 

"It was resolved to advise M. La Salle that it was imprudent to 
remain here any longer for the absent naen, and expose ourselves to 
the hardships of winter, when it would be doubtful if we could find 
the Illinois in their villages, as then they would be divided into fami- 
lies, and scattered over the country to subsist more conveniently. We 
further represented that the game might fail us, in which event we 
must certainly perish with hunger ; whei'eas, if we went forward, we 
would find enough corn among the Illinois, who would rather suppl}- 

* " Allouez' Journal," published in Shea's " Discoveiy on Exploration of the Missis- 
sippi Valley . " 

fin some works, the Geological Surveys of Indiana for 1873, p. 458, among others, 
it is erroneously assumed that La Salle was the discoverer of the St. Joseph River. 
While Fathers Hennepin and Zenobe Membre, who were with La Salle, may be the only 
accessible authors who have described it, the stream and its location was well known 
to La Salle and to them, as appears from their own account of it before they had ever 
seen it. Before leaving Mackinaw, Tonti was ordered to hunt up the deserters from, 
and to bring in the tardy traders belonging to. La Salle's party, and conduct them to 
the mouth of the St. Joseph. The pilot of the Griffin was under instruction to bring 
her there. Indeed, the conduct of the whole expedition leaves no room to doubt that 
the whole route to the Illinois River, by way of the St. Joseph and the Kankakee port- 
age, was well known at Mackinaw, and definitely fixed upon by La Salle, at least be- 
fore leaving the latter place. 



74 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NOUTinVEST. 

fourteen men than thirty-two with provisions. We said further that 
it would be quite impossible, if we delayed longer, to continue the 
voyage until the winter was over, because the rivers would be frozen 
over and we could not make use of our canoes. Notwithstanding 
these reasons, M. La Salle thought it necessary to remain for the rest 
of the men, as we would be in no condition to appear before the Illi- 
nois and treat with them with our present small force, whom they 
would meet with scorn. That it would be better to delay our entry 
into their country, and in the meantime tiy to meet with some of their 
nation, learn their language, and gain their good will by presents. 
La Salle concluded his discourse with the declaration that, although all 
of his men might run away, as for himself, he would remain alone with 
his Indian hunter, and find means to nuiintain tlio three missionaries — 
meaning me and my two clerical brethren. Having come to this con- 
clusion, La Salle called his men together, and advised them that he 
expected each one to do his duty ; that he pro})osed to build a fort 
here for the security of the ship and the safety of our goods, and our- 
selves, too, in case of any disaster. ISTone of us, at this time, knew 
that our ship had been lost. The men were quite dissatisfied at La- 
Salle's course, but his reasons therefor were so many that they yielded, 
and agreed to entirely follow his directions. 

" Just at the mouth of the river was an eminence M'ith a kind of 
plateau, naturally fortified. It was quite steep, of a triangular shape, 
defended on two sides by the river, and on the other by a deep ravine 
which the water had washed out. We felled the trees that grew on 
this hill, and cleared from it the bushes for the distance of two musket 
shot. We began to build a redoubt about forty feet long by eighty 
broad, with great square pieces of timber laid one upon the other, and 
then cut a great number of stakes, some twenty feet long, to drive into 
the ground on the river side, to make the fort inaccessible in that direc- 
tion. We were employed the whole of the month of Koveml)er in 
this work, which was very fatiguing, — having no other food than the 
beai's our savage killed. These animals are here very abundant, be- 
cause of tlie great quantity of grai)es they tind in this vicinity. Their 
flesh was so fat and luscious that our men grew weary of it, and desired 
to go themselves and hunt for wild goats. La Salle denied them that 
liberty, which made some murmurs among the men, and they went 
unwillingly to their work. These annoyances, with the near approach 
of winter, together with the apprehension that his ship was lost, gave 
La Salle a melancholy which he resolutely tried to but could not con- 
ceal. 

'*We made a hut wherein we performed divine service every Sun- 



FORT MI A. MIS. 75 

day ; and Father Gabriel and myself, who preached alternately, care- 
fully selected such texts as were suitable to our situation, and fit to 
inspire us w^ith courage, concord, and brotherly love. Our exhorta- 
tions produced good results, and deterred our men from their meditated 
desertion. We sounded the mouth of the river and found a sand-bar, 
on which we feared our expected ship might strike ; we marked out a 
channel through which the vessel might safely enter by attaching 
buoys, made of inflated bear-skins, fostened to long poles driven into 
the bed of the lake. Two men were also sent back to Mackinac to 
await there the return of the ship, and serve as ]3ilots.* 

" M. Tonti arrived on the 20tli of l^oveinber with two canoes, laden 
with stags and deer, which were a welcome refreshment to our men. 
lie did not bring more than about one-half of his men, having left 
the rest on the opposite side of the lake, within three days' journey of 
the fort. La Salle was angry with him on this account, because he 
was afraid the men would run away. Tonti's party informed us that 
the Griffin had not put into Mackinaw, according to orders, and that 
they had heard nothing of her since our departure, although they had 
made inquiries of the savages living on the coast of the lake. This 
confirmed the suspicion, or rather the belief, that the vessel had been 
cast away. However, M. La Salle continued work on the building of 
the fort, which was at last completed and called Fort Miamis. 

" The winter was drawing nigh, and La Salle, fearful that the ice 
would interrupt his voyage, sent M. Tonti back to hurry forward the 
men he had left, and to command them to come to him immediately ; 
but, meeting with a violent storm, their canoes were driven against 
the beach and broken to pieces, and Tonti's men lost their guns and 
equipage, and were obliged to return to us overland. A few days, 
after this all our men arrived except two, w'ho had deserted. We pre- 
pared at once to resume our voyage ; rains having fallen that melted 
the ice and made the rivers navigable. 

" On the 3d of December, 1679, we embarked, being in all thirt}-- 
three men, in eight canoes. We left the lake of the Illinois and 
went up the river of the Miamis, in which we had previously made 
soundings. We made about five-and-twenty leagues southward, but 
failed to discover the place where we were to land, and carry our canoes 
and efl'ects into the river of the Illinois, which falls into that of the 
Meschasipi, that is, in the language of the Illinois, the great river. 
We had already gone beyond the place of the portage, and, not know- 
ing where we were, we thought proper to remain there, as we were 
expecting M. La Salle, who had taken to the land to view the country. 
*This is the beginning, at what is now known as Benton Harbor, Michigan. 



76 HISTOUIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

We staid here quite a while, and, La Salle failing to appear, I went a 
distance into the woods with two men, who fired off their guns to 
notify him of the place where we were. In the meantime two other 
men went higher up the river, in canoes, in search of him. We all 
returned toward evening, having vainly endeavored to find him. The 
next day I went up the river myself, hut, hearing nothing of him, I 
came back, and found our men very much perplexed, fearing he was 
lost. However, about four o'clock in the afternoon M. La Salle returned 
to us, having his face and hands as black as pitch. He carried two 
beasts, as big as muskrats, whose skin was very fine, and like ermine. 
He had killed them with a stick, as they hung by their tails to the 
branches of the trees. 

" He told us that the marshes he had met on his way had compelled 
him to bring a large compass ; and that, being nnich delayed by the 
snow, which fell very fast, it was past midnight before he arrived upon 
the banks of the river, where he fired his gun twice, and, hearing no 
answer, he concluded that we had gone higher up the river, and had, 
therefore, marched that way. He added that, after three hours' march, 
he saw a fire upon a little hill, whither he went directly and hailed us 
several times ; but, hearing no reply, he approached and found no per- 
son near the fire, but only some dry grass, upon which a man had laid 
a little while before, as he conjectured, because the bed was still warm. 
He supposed that a savage had been occupying it, who fied upon his 
approach, and was now hid in ambuscade near by. La Salle called out 
loudly to him in two or three languages, saying that he need not be afraid 
of him, and that he was agoing to lie in his bed. La Salle received 
no answer. To guard against surprise, La Salle cut bushes and placed 
them to obstruct the way, and sat down by the fire, the smoke of 
which blackened his hands and face, as I have already observed. Hav- 
ing warmed and rested himself, he laid down under the tree upon the 
dry grass the savage had gathered and slept well, notwithstanding the 
frost and snow. Father Gabriel and I desired him to keep with his 
men, and not to expose himself in the future, as the success of our 
enterprise depended solely on him, and he promised to follow our 
advice. Our savage, who remained behind to hunt, finding none of 
us at the portage, came higher n\) the river, to where we were, and 
told us we had missed the place. We sent all the canoes back under 
his charge except one, which I retained for M. La Salle, who was so 
weary that he was obliged to remain there that night. I made a little 
hut with mats, constructed with marsh rushes, in which we laid down 
together for the night. By an unha])py accident our cabin took fire, 
and we were very near being burned alive after we had gone to 
sleep." 



ABORIGINAL NAME OF "KANKAKEE." 77 

Here follows Hennepin's description of the Kankakee portage, and 
of the marshy grounds about the headwaters of this stream, as already 
quoted on page 2-i. 

" Having passed through the marshes, we came to a vast prairie, in 
which nothing grows but grasses, which were at this time dry and 
burnt, because the Miamis set the grasses on fire every year, in hunt- 
ing for wild oxen (buftalo), as I shall mention farther on. We found 
no game, which was a disappointment to us, as our provisions had 
begun to fail. Our men traveled about sixty miles without killing 
anj'thing other than a lean stag, a small wild goat, a few swan and 
two bustards, which were but a scanty subsistence for two and thirty 
men. Most of the men were become so weary of this laborious life 
that, were it practicable, they would have run away and joined the 
savages, who, as we inferred by the great fires which we saw on the 
prairies, were not very far from us. There nmst be an innumerable 
quantity of wild cattle in this country, since the ground here is every- 
where covered with their horns. Ths Miamis hunt them toward the 
latter end of autunm.'-* 

That part of the Illinois River above the Desplaines is called the 
Kankakee, which is a corruption of its original Indian name. St. 
Cosme, the narrative of whose voj^age down the Illinois Kiver, by 
way of Chicago, in 1699, and found in Dr. Shea's work of "Early 
Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi," refers to it as the The-a-li-ke, 
" which is the real river of the Illinois, and ^says) that which we de- 
scended (the Desplaines) was only a branch." Father Marest, in his 
letter of November 9, 1712, narrating a journey he had previously 
made from Kaskaskia up to the Mission of St. Joseph, says of the Illi- 
nois River : " We transported all there w^as in the canoe toward the 
source of the Illinois (Indian), which they call Hau-ki-ki." Father 
Charlevoix, who descended the Kankakee from the portage, in his let- 
ter, dated at the source of the river Theakiki, September 17, 1721, 
says : " This morning I walked a league farther in the meadow, having 
my feet almost always in the water ; afterward I met with a kind of a 
pool or marsh, which had a comnmnication with several others of dif- 
ferent sizes, but the largest was about a hundred paces in circuit ; these 
are the sources of the river The-a-ki-ki, wh'ich, by a corrupted pronun- 
ciation, our Indians call Ki-a-ki-ki. Theak signifies a wolf, in what 
language I do not remember, but the river bears that name because the 
Mahingan§ (Mohicans), who were likewise called wolves, had formerl}' 

* Hennepin and his party were not aware of the migratory habits of the buffiilo ; 
and that their scarcity on the Kankakee in the winter months was because the herds 
had gone southward to warmer latitude and better pasturage. 



78 HISTORIC NOTES ON TIIR XORTIIWEST. 

taken refuge on its banks." * The Mohicans were of the Algonquin 
stock, anciently living east of the Hudson River, where they had been 
so persecuted and nearly destroyed b}- the implacable Iroquois that 
their tribal integrity was lost, and they were dispersed in small fami- 
lies over the west, seeking protection in isolated places, or living at 
sufferance among their Algonquin kindred. They were brave, faithful 
to the extreme, famous scouts, and successful hunters. -La Salle, ap- 
preciating these valuable traits, usually kept a few of them in his em- 
ploy. The "savage," or "hunter," so often referred to by Hennepin, 
in the extracts we have taken from his journal, was a Mohican. 

In a report made to the late Governor Xinian Edwards, in 1812, 
by John Hays, interpreter and Coureur de Bois of the routes, rivers 
and Indian villages in the then Illinois Territory, Mr. Hays calls the 
Kankakee the Quin-que-que, which was probably its French-Indian 
name.f Col. Guerdon S. Hubbard, who for many years, dating back 
as early as 1819, was a trader, and commanded great influence with 
the bands of Pottawatomies, claiming the Kankakee as their countr}', 
informs the writer that the Pottawatomie name of the Kankakee is 
Kj'-an-ke-a-kee, meaning " the river of the wonderful or beautiful 
land, — as it really is, westward of the marshes. "A-kee," "Ah-ke" and 
"Aki," in the Algonquin dialect, signifies earth or land. 

The name Desplaines, like that of the Kankakee, has undergone 
changes in the progress of time. On a French map of Louisiana, in 
1717, the Desplaines is laid down as the Chicago River. Just after 
Great Britain had secured the possessions of the French east of the 
Mississippi, by conquest and treaty, and when the British authorities 
were keenly alive to everything pertaining to their newly acquired 
possessions, an elaborate map, collated from the most authentic sources 
by Eman Bowen, geographer to His Majesty- King George the Third, 
was issued, and on this map the Desplaines is laid down as the Illinois, 
or Chicago River. Many early French writers speak of it, as they 
do of the Kankakee above the confluence, as the " River of the Illi- 
nois." Its French Canadian name is An J^lem, now changed to Des- 
plaines, or Riviei'e An Plein, or Despleines, from a variety of hard 
maple, — that is to say, sugar tree. The Pottawatomies called it She- 
shik-mao-shi-ke Se-pe, signifying the river of the tree from which a 
great quantity of sa]) flows in the spring.;}: It has also been sanctified 
by Father Zenobe Membre with the name Divine River, and by authors 

* Charlevoix' "Journal of a Voyage to America," vol. 2, p. 184. London edition, 
1761. 

t " History of Illinois and Life of Governor Edwards," by his son Ninian W. 
Edwards, p. 98. 

X Long's Second Expedition, vol. 1, p. 178. 



NAMES OF THE ILLINOIS. 79 

of early western gazetteers, vulgarized In- the appellation of KkT^ujjoo 
Creek. 

Below the confluence of the Desplaines, the Illinois River was, by 
La Salle, named the Seignelay, as a mark of his esteem for the brilliant 
young Colbert, who succeeded his lather as Minister of the Marine. 
On the great map, prepared by the engineer Franquelin in 1684, it 
is called River Des Illinois, or Macoupins. The name Illinois, which, 
fortunately, it will always bear, was derived from the name of the con- 
federated tribes who anciently dwelt upon its banks. 

"We continued our course," says Hennepin, '• upon this river (the 
Kankakee and Illinois) very near the whole month of December, at 
the latter end of which we arrived at a village of the Illinois, which 
lies near a hundred and thirty leagues from Fort Miamis, on the Lake 
of the Illinois. We suffered greatly on the passage, for the savages 
liaving set fire to the grass on the prairie, the wild cattle had fled, and 
we did not kill one. Some wild turkeys were the only game we 
secured. God's providence supjDorted us all the while, and as we 
meditated upon the extremities to which we were reduced, regarding 
ourselves without hope of relief, we found a very large wild ox stick- 
ing fast in the mud of the river. We killed him, and with much diffi- 
culty dragged him out of the mud. This was a great refreshment to 
our men ; it revived their courage, — being so timely and unexpectedly 
relieved, they concluded that God approved our undertaking. 

The great village of the Illinois, where La Salle's part}' had now 
arrived, has been located with such certainty by Francis Parkman, the 
learned historical writer, as to leave no doubt of its identity. It 
was on the north side of the Illinois River, above the mouth of the 
Vermillion and below Starved Rock, near the little village of Utica, 
in La Salle county, Illinois.* 

" We found," continues Father Hennepin, " no one in the village, 
as we had foreseen, for the Illinois, according to their custom, had di- 
vided themselves into small hunting parties. Their absence caused 
great perplexity amongst us, for we wanted provisions, and yet did 
not dare to meddle with the Indian corn the savages had laid under 
ground for their subsistence and for seed. However, our necessity be- 
ing ver}' great, and it being impossible to continue our voyage without 
any provisions, M. La Salle resolved to take about forty bushels of 
corn, and hoped to appease the savages with presents. We embarked 
again, with these fresh provisions, and continued to fall down the river, 

* Mr. Parkman gives an interesting account of his recent visit to. and the identifi- 
cation of, the locality, in an elaborate note in his " Discovery of the Great West," pp. 
221, 222. 



80 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

which runs directly toward the south. On the 1st of January we went 
through a lake (Peoria Lake) formed by the river, about seven leagues' 
long and one broad. The savages call that place Pimeteoui, that is, in 
their tongue, ' a place where there is an abundance of fat animals. ' * 
Resuming Hennepin's narrative : "The current brought us, in the 
meantime, to the Indian camp, and M. La Salle was the first one 
to land, followed closely by his men, which increased the consterna- 
tion of the savages, whom we easily might have defeated. As it was 
not our design, we made a halt to give them time to recover them- 
selves and to see that we were not enemies. Most of the savages who 
had run away upon our landing, understanding that we were friends, 
returned ; but some others did not come back for three or four days, 
and after they had learned that we had smoked the calumet. 

" I must observe here, that the hardest winter does not last longer 
than two months in this charming country, so that on the 15th of Jan- 
uary there came a sudden thaw, which made the rivers navigable, and 
the weather as mild as it is in France in the middle of the spring. 
M. La Salle, improving this fair season, desired me to go down the 
river with him to choose a place proper to build a fort. We selected 
an eminence on the bank of the river, defended on that side by the 
river, and on two others by deep ravines, so that it was accessible only 
on one side. We cast a trench to join the two ravines, and made the 
eminence steep on that side, supporting the earth with great pieces of 
timber. We made a rough palisade to defend ourselves in case the 
Indians should attack us while we were engaged in building the fort ; 
but no one offering to disturb us, we went on diligently with our work. 

* Louis Beck, in his " Gazetteer of Illinois and Missouri," p. 119, says: "The Indi- 
ans call the lake Pin-a-tah-wee, on account of its being frequently covered with a 
scum which has a greasy appearance." Owing to the rank growth of aquatic plants 
in the Illinois River before they were disturbed by the frequent passage of boats, and to 
the grasses on the borders of the stream and the adjacent marshes, and the decay 
taking place in both under the scorchmg rays of the summer's sun, the surface of the 
river and lake were frequently coated with this vegetable decomposition. Prof. School- 
craft ascended the Illinois River, and was at Fort Clark on the 19th of August, 1821. 
Under this date is the following extract from his "Narrative Journal": "About 9 
o'clock in the morning we came to a part of the river which was covered for several 
hundred yards with a scum or froth of the most intense green color, and emitting a 
nauseous exhalation that was almost insupportal)le. We were compelled to pass 
through it. The fine green color of this somewhat compact scum, resembling that of 
verdegris, led us at the moment to conjecture that it might derive this character from 
some mineral spring or vein in the bed of the river, but we had reasons afterward 
to regret this opinion. I directed one of the canoe men to collect a bottle of this 
mother of miasmata for preservation, but its fermenting nature baffled repeated at- 
tempts to keep it corked. We had daily seen instances of the powerful tendency of 
these waters to facilitate the decomposition of floating vegetation, but had not before 
obsei-ved any in so mature and complete a state of putrefaction. It might certainly 
justifv an observer less given to fiction than the ancient poets, to people this stream 
"with^lie Hydra, as were the pestilential-breeding marshes of Italy."— Schoolcraft's 
"Central Mississippi Valley," p. 305. 



FORT CKEVECOEUR AXD ITS LOCATIOX. 81 

When tlie fort was half finished, M. La Salle lodged himself, with M. 
Tonti, in the middle of the fortification, and every one took his post. 
We placed the forge on the curtain on the side of the Avood, and laid 
in a great rpiantity of coal for that })urpose. But our greatest difH- 
culty was to hnild a boat, — our carpenters having deserted us, we did 
not know what to do. However, as timber was abundant and near at 
hand, we told our men that if any of them M-ould undertake to saw 
boards for l)uilding the bark, we might surmonnt all other difficulties. 
Two of the men undertook the task, and succeeded so well that we 
began to build a bark, the keel whereof was forty-two feet long. Our 
men went on so briskly with the work, that on the 1st of March our 
boat was half built, and all the timber ready prepared for furnishing it. 
Our fort M-as also very near finished, and we named it ' Fort Creve- 
coHir, ' because the desertion of our men, and other difficulties we 
had labored under, had almost ' broken our hearts. ' " 

" M. La Salle," says Hennepin, " no longer doubted that the Griffin 
was lost; but neither this nor other difficulties dejected him. His 
great courage buoyed him up, and he resolved to return to Fort Fron- 
tenac by land, notwithstanding the snow, and the great dangers attend- 
ing so long a journey. We had many private conferences, wherein it 
was decided that he should return to Fort Frontenac with three men, 
to bring with him the necessar}^ articles to proceed with the discov- 
ery, while I, with tv»-o men, should go in a canoe to the Eiver Me- 
schasipi, and endeavor to obtain the friendship of the nations who 
inhabited its bardss. 

" M. La Salle left M. Tonti to command in Fort Creveco^ur, and 
ordered our carpenter to prepare some thick boards to plank the deck 
of our ship, in the nature of a parapet, to cover it against the arrows 
of the savages in case they should shoot at us from the shore. Then, 
calling his men together. La Salle requested them to obey M. Tonti's 
orders in his absence, to live in Christian union and charity ; to be 
courageous and firm in their designs ; and above all not to give credit 
to false reports the savages might make, either of him or of their com- 
rades who accompanied Father Hennepin.'' 

Hennepin and his two companions, with a supply of trinkets suitable 

* ■• Fort Crevecoeur, " or the Broken Heart, was built on the east side of the Illi- 
nois River, a short distance below the outlet of Peoria Lake. It is so located on the 
great map of Franquelin, made at Quebec in 1684. There are many indications on 
this map, going to show that it was constructed largely under the supervision of La- 
Salle. The fact mentioned by Hennepin, that they went down the river, and that coal 
was gathered for the supply of the i'ort, would confirm this theory as to its location; 
for the outcrop of coal is abundant in the blutfs on the east side of the river below 
Peoria. There is also a spot in this immediate vicinity that answers well to the site 
of the fort as described by Fathers Hennepin and Memlore. 
6 



82 niSTORIC NOTES ox THK XORTHWKST. 

for the Indian trade, left l"'uit Crevecceur for the Mississippi, on the 
29th of February, 1680, and were captured by the Sioux, as ah-eady 
stated. From this time to tlie ultimate discovery and taking possession 
of the Mississip})! and the valleys by La Salle, Father Zcnobe Membre 
was the historian of the expedition. 

La Salle started across the country, going u]) the Illinois and Kan- 
kakee, and 'througli the southci-n part of the present State of Michigan. 
He reached the Detroit River, ferrying the stream with a i-aft ; he at 
length stood on Canadian soil. Striking a direct line across the wilder- 
ness, he arrived at Lake Erie, near Point Pelee. By this time only 
one man remained in health, and with his assistance La Salle made a 
canoe. Embarking in it the party came to Niagara on Easter Monday. 
Leaving his comrades, who were completely exhausted, La Salle on the 
6tli of May reached Fort Frontenac, making a journey of over a thou- 
sand miles in sixty-five days, " the greatest feat ever performed by a 
Frenchman in America."'* 

La Salle found his affairs in great confusion. His creditors had 
seized upon his estate, including Fort Frontenac. Undaunted by this 
new misfortune, he confronted his creditors and enemies, pacifying the 
former and awing the latter into silence. He gathered the fragments 
of his scattered property and in a short time started M'est with ^com- 
pany of twenty-five men, whom he had recruited to assist in the prose- 
cution of his discoveries. He reached Lake Huron by the way of Lake 
Simcoe, and shortly afterward arrived at Mackinaw. Here he found 
that his enemies had been very busy, and had poisoned the minds of 
the Indians against his designs. 

We leave La Salle at Mackinaw to notice some of the occurrences 
that took place on the Illinois and St. Joseph after he had departed for 
Fort Frontenac. On this journey, as La Salle passed up the Illinois, 
he was favorably impressed with Starved Rock as a place presenting 
strong defenses naturally. He sent word back to Tonti, below Peoria 
Lake, to take possession of " The Rock " and erect a fortification on its 
sunnnit. Tonti accordingly came up the river with a ])art of his avail- 
able force and began to work upon the new fort. While engaged in 
this enterprise the principal part of the men remaining at Fort Creve- 
cftiur mutinied. They destroyed the vessel on tlie stocks, plundered 
the storehouse, escaped up the Illinois River and ap|)eared before Fort 
Miami. These deserters demolished Fort Miami and robbed it of goods 
and furs of La Salle, on deposit there, and then fled out of the country. 
These misfortunes were soon followed by an incursion of the Irocpiois, 

* Parknian's " Discovery of the Great West." 



DEATH OF FATHER GABRIEL. 83 

who attacked the Illinois in their village near the Starved Rock. Tonti, 
acting as mediator, came near losing his life at the hand of an infuriated 
Iroquois warrior, who drove a knife into his ribs. Constantly an object 
of distrust to the Illinois, who feared he was a spy and friend of tlie 
Iroquois, in turn exposed to the jealousy of the Iroqnois, who imag- 
ined he and his French friends were allies of the Illinois, Tonti 
remained faithful to his trust until he saw that he could not avert the 
blow meditated by the Iroquois. Then, with Fathers Zenobe Membre 
and Gabriel Rel)0urde, and a few Frenchmen who had remained faith- 
ful, he escaped from the enraged Indians and made his way, in a leaky 
, canoe, up the Illinois River. Father Gabriel one fine day left his com- 
panions on the river to enjoy a walk in the beautiful groves near by, 
and while thus engaged, and as he was meditating upon his holy call- 
ing, fell into an ambuscade of Kickapoo Indians. The good old man, 
unconscious of his danger, was instantly knocked down, the scalp torn 
from his venerable head, and his gray hairs afterward exhibited in tri- 
umph In' his young murderers as a trophy taken from the crown of an 
Iroquois warrior. Tonti, with those in his company, pursued his course, 
passing by Chicago, and thence up the west shore of Lake Michigan. 
Subsisting on berries, and often on acorns and roots which they dug 
from the ground, they finally arrived at the Pottawatomie towns. Pre- 
vious to this they abandoned their canoe and started on foot for the 
Mission of Green Bay, where they wintered. 

La Salle, when he arrived at St. Joseph, found Fort Miamis plun- 
dered and demolished. He also learned that the Iroquois had attacked 
the Illinois. Fearing for the safety of Tonti, he pushed on rapidly, 
onlv to find, at Starved Rock, the unmistakable signs of an Indian 
slaughter. The report was true. The Iroquois had defeated the Illi- 
nois and driven them west of the Mississippi. La Salle viewed the 
wreck of his cherished project, the demolition of the fort, the loss of 
his peltries, and especially the destruction of his vessel, in that usual 
calm way peculiar to him ; and, although he must have suffered the 
most intense anguish, no trace of sorrow or indecision appeared on his 
inflexible countenance. Shortly afterward he returned to Fort Miamis. 
La Salle occupied his time, until spring, in rebuilding Fort Miamis, 
holding conferences with the surrounding Indian tribes, and confeder- 
ating them against future attacks of the Iroquois. He now abandoned 
the purpose of descending the Mississippi in a sailing vessel, and de- 
termined to prosecute his voyage in the ordinary wooden pirogues or 
canoes. 

Tonti M'as sent forward to Chicago Creek, where he constructed a 
number of sledges. After other preparations had been made. La Salle 



84 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NOUTHWEST. 

and his party left St. Joseph and came around the southern extremity 
of the lake. The goods and effects were placed on the sledges pre- 
pared by Tonti. La Salle's party consisted of twenty-three French- 
men and eighteen Indians. The savages took witli them ten squaws 
and three children, so that tlic party numbered in all fifty-four persons. 
They had to make the portage of the Chicago River. After dragging 
their canoes, sledges, baggage and provisions about eighty leagues 
over the ice, on the Desplaines and Illinois Rivers, they came to the 
great Indian town. It was deserted, the savages having gone down 
the river to Lake Peoria. From Peoria Lake the navigation was open, 
and embarking, on the 6tli of February, they soon arrived at the Mis- 
sissippi. Here, owing to floating ice, they were delayed till the 13th 
of the same month. Membre describes the Missouri as follows: "It is 
full as large as the Mississippi, into which it empties, troubling it so 
that, from tlie mouth of the Ozage (Missouri), the water is hardly 
drinkable. The Indians assured us that this river is formed by many 
others, and that they ascend it for ten or twelve days to a mountain 
where it rises ; that beyond this mountain is the sea, where they see 
great ships ; that on the river are a great number of large villages. 
Although this river is very large, the Mississippi does not seem aug- 
mented by it, but it pours in so much mud that, from its mouth, the 
water of the great river, whose bed is also slimy, is more like clear 
mud than river watev, without changing at all till it reaches the sea, a 
distance of inore than three hundred leagues, although it receives seven 
large rivers, the water of which is very beautiful, and which are almost 
as large as the Mississippi." From this time, until they neared the 
mouths of the Mississippi, nothing especially worthy of note occurred. 
On the Gth of April they came to the place where the river divides 
itself into three channels. M. La Salle took the western, the Sieur 
Dautray the southern, and Tonti, accompanied by Membre, followed 
the middle channel. The three channels were beautiful and deep. 
The water became brackish, and two leagues farther it became perfectly 
salt, and advancing on they at last beheld the Gulf of Mexico. La 
Salle, in a canoe, coasted the borders of the sea, and then the parties 
assembled on a dry spot of ground not far from the mouth of the river. 
On the 9th of April, with all the ]K)mp and ceremony of the Holy 
Catholic Church, La Salle, in the name of the French King, took pos- 
session of the Mississippi and all its tributaries. First they chanted 
the "'Yexilla Regis" and " Te Deum," and then, wiiile the assembled 
voyageurs and tlieir savage attendants fired their muskets and shouted 
" Vive le Roi," La Salle planted the column, at the same time pro- 
claiming, in a loud voice, " In the name of the Most Pligli, Mighty, 



TAKING POSSESSION OF LOUISIANA. 85 

Invincible, and A'ietorioiis Prince, Louis tlie Great, by the Grace of 
God King of France and of Navarre, Fourteenth of tliat name, I, this 
9th da}' of A])ri], one thousand six hundred and eighty-two, in virtue 
of the commission of His Majesty, whicli I liold in my hand, and 
which may be seen by all whom it may concern, have taken, and do now 
take, in the name of His Majesty and his successors to the crown, posses- 
sion of this country of Louisiana, the seas, harbors, ports, bays, adjacent 
straits, and all the people, nations, provinces, cities, towns, villages, 
mines, minerals, fisheries, streams and rivers within the extent of the 
said Louisiana, from the mouth of the great river St. Louis, otherwise 
called Ohio, as also along the river Colbert, or Mississippi, and the 
rivers which discharge themselves therein, from its source beyond the 
country of the Nadonessious (Sioux), as far as its mouth at the sea, 
and also to the mouth of the river of Palms, upon the assurance we 
liave had from the natives of these countries that we were the first 
Europeans who have descended or ascended the river Colbert (Missis- 
sippi) ; hereby protesting against all who may hereafter undertake to 
invade any or all of these aforesaid countries, peoples or lands, to the 
prejudice of His Majesty, acquired by the consent of the nations 
dwelling herein. Of which, and of all else that is needful, I hereby 
take to witness those who hear me. and demand an act of the notary 
here present." 

At the foot of the tree to whieli the cross was attached La Salle 
caused to be buried a leaden plate, on one side of which were engraven 
the arms of France, and on the opposite, the following Latin inscription: 

LVDOVICUS MAGNUS REGNAT. 

NONO APRILIS CIO IOC LXXXII. 
ROBERTVS CAVALIER, CVM DOMINO DETONTI LEGATO, R. P. ZEXOBIO 
MEMBRE, RECCOLLECTO, ET VIGINTI GALLIS PRIMYS HOC FLVMEN, 
INDE AB ILINEORVM PAGO ENAVAGAVIT, EZVQUE OSTIVM FECIT 
PERVIVM, NONO APRILIS ANNI. 

CIO IOC LXXXL 

Note. — The following is a translation of the inscription on the leaden plate: 

" Louis the Great reigns. 
"Robert Cavalier, with Lord Tonti as Lieutenant, R. P. Zenobe Merabre, Recollect, 
and twenty Frenchmen, first navigated this stream from the country of the Illinois, 
and also passed through its mouth, on the 9th of April, 1682." 

After which. La Salle remarked that Llis Majesty, who was the 
eldest son of the Holy Catholic Church, would not annex any country 
to his dominion without giving especial attention to establish the 



86 HISTOKIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

Christian religion therein, lie then proceeded at once to erect a cross, 
before which the "Vexilla" and "Domino Salvum fac Regeni'' were 
snng. The ceremony was conclnded by shouting "Vive le Roi ! "' 

Tims was completed the discovery and taking possession of the 
Mississippi valle}'. By that indisputable title, the right of discovery, 
attested by all those fcn-malities recognized as essential by the laws of 
nations, the manuscript evidence of which was duly certified by a no- 
tary public brought along for that purpose, and witnessed by the sig- 
natures of La Salle and a number of other persons ])resent on the occa- 
sion, France became the owner of all that vast country drained by the 
Mississippi and its tributaries. Bounded Ijy the Alleghanies on the 
east, and the Rocky Mountains on the west, and extending from an 
imdefined limit on the north to the burning sands of the Gulf on the 
south. Embracing within its area every variety of climate, watered 
with a thousand beautiful streams, containing vast prairies and exten- 
sive forests, with a rich and fertile soil that only awaited the husband- 
man's skill to yield bountiful harvests, rich in vast beds of bituminous 
coal and deposits of iron, copper and other .ores, this magnificent 
domain was not to become the seat of a religious dogma, enforced by 
the power of state, but was designed under the hand of God to become 
the center of civilization, — the heart of the American republic, — where 
the right of conscience was to be free, without interference of law, and 
where universal liberty should only be restrained in so far as its unre- 
strained exercise might conflict witli its equal enjoyment by all. 

Had France, with the same energy she displayed in discovering 
Louisiana, retained her grasj) upon this territory, the dominant race in 
the valley of the Mississippi would have been Gallic instead of Anglo- 
Saxon. 

The manner in which France lost this possession in America will 
be referred to in a subsequent chapter. 



CHAPTER XL 

LA SALLE'S RETURN, AND HIS DEATH IN ATTEMPTING A 
SETTLEMENT ON THE GULF. 

La Salle and liis party returned up the Mississippi. Before tliej 
reached Chickasaw Blntfs, La Salle was taken dangerouslv ill. 

Dispatchini; Tonti ahead to Mackinaw, he remained there under 
the care of Father Afenibre. About the end of July he was enabled to 
proceed, and joined Tonti at Mackinaw, in September. Owing to the 
threatened invasion of the Iroquois, La Salle postponed his projected 
trip to France, and passed the winter at Fort St. Louis. From Fort 
St. Louis, it would seem, La Salle directed a letter to Count Frontenac, 
giving an account of his voyage to the Mississippi. It is short and his- 
torically interesting, and was first published in that rare little volume, 
Thevenofs "Collection of Voyages," published at Paris in 1687. This 
letter contains, perhaps, the first description of Chicago Creek and the 
liarbor, and as everything pertaining to Chicago of a historical charac- 
ter is a matter of public interest, we insert La Salle's account. It 
seems that, even at that early day, almost two centui-ies ago, the idea 
of a canal connecting Lake Michigan and the Illinois was a subject of 
consideration : 

'• The creek (Chicago Creek) through which we went, from the lake 
of the Illinois into the Divine Piver (the An Plein, or Des Plaines) is 
so shallow and so greatly exposed to storms that no ship can venture 
in except in a great calm. Neither is the country between the creek 
and the Diviiie River suitable for a canal ; for the prairies between 
them ai-e submerged after heavy rains, and a canal would be immedi- 
ately filled u}) with sand. Besides this, it is not possible to dig into 
the ground on account of the water, that country being nothing but a 
marsh. Supposing it were possible, however, to cut a canal, it would 
l)e useless, as the Divine River is not navigable for forty leagues 
together ; that is to say, from that place (the portage) to the village of 
the Illinois, except for canoes, and these have scarcely water enough in 
summer time.'" 

The identity of the " River Chicago," of early explorers, with the 
modern stream of the same name, is clearly established by the map of 
Franquelin of 1684, as well, also, as by the Memoir of Sieur de Tonti. 

87 



88 HISTORIC NOTES OX THE NORTHWEST. 

The latter had ocrasioii to pass through the Chicago River more fre- 
quently than any other person of his time, and his intimate acquaint- 
ance with the Indians in the vicinity would necessarily place his decla- 
rations beyond the suspicion of a mistake. Referring- to his being sent 
in the fall of 1G87, by La Salle, from Fort Miamis, at the mouth of the 
St. Joseph, to Chicago, already alluded to, he says: "We went in 
canoes to the ' River Chicago,' where there is a portage which joins that 
of the Illinois.'" " 

The name of this river is variously spelled by early writers, " Chi- 
eagon,"f " Che-ka-kou," :}; " Chikgoua."§ In the prevailing Algonquin 
language the word signifies a polecat or skunk. The Aborigines, also, 
called garlic by nearly the same word, from which many authors liave 
inferred that Chicago means "wild onion." || 

While La Salle was in the west, Count Frontenac was removed, 
and M. La Barrc appointed Governor of Canada. The latter was the 
avowed enemy of La Salle. He injured La Salle in every possible 

* Tonti's Memoir, published in the Historical Collections of Louisiana, vol. 1, p. 59. 

t Joutel's .Journal. 

i La Hontan . 

§ Father Gravier's Narrative Journal, published in Dr. Shea's "Voyages Up and 
Down the Mississippi." 

II A writer of a historical sketch, published m a late number of "Potter's Monthly," 
on the isolated statement of an old resident of western Michioran, says that the Indi- 
ans living- thereabouts subsequent to the advent of the early settlers called Chicago 
"Tuck-Chicago," the meaning of which was, "a place without wood," and thus in- 
vesting a mere fancy with the dignity of truth. The great city of the west has taken 
its na-me from the stream along whose margin it was first laid out, and it becomes im- 
portant to preserve the origin of its name with whatever certainty a research of all 
accessil)le authorities may furnish. In the first place, Chicago was not a place "with- 
out wood." or trees; on the contrary, it is the only locality where timber was anything 
like abundant for the distance of miles around. The north and south branches west- 
ward, and the lake on the east, afforded ample protection against prairie fires; and Dr. 
John M. Peck, in his early Gazetteer of the state, besides other authorities, especially 
mention the fact that there was a good quality of timber in the vicinity of Chicago, 
particularly on the north branch. There is nowhere to be found in the several Indian 
vocabularies of Sir Alexander Mackenzie. Dr. Edwin James, and the late Albert Gal- 
latin, m their e.xtensive collections of Algonquin words, any expressions like those used 
by the writer in Potter's Monthly, bearing the signification which he attaches to them. 
In Mackenzie's Vocabulary, the Algonquin word for pol(>cat is ''SJii-kak.''' In Dr. 
James' Vocabulary, the word for skunk is ''SJic-gaJK/ (shegag): and Shifi-tjaK-ga-irln- 
zhei'f/ is the plural for onion or garlic, literally, in the Indian dialect, "skunk-weeds." 
Dr. James, in a foot-note, says that from this word in the singular number, some have 
derived the name Chi-ka-(/n, wliieh is commonly pronounced among the Indians, Shig- 
gau-fjo, and Shi-gau-go-on<r (meaning) at Chicago. 

An association of Enirlish traders, styling themselves the " Illinois Land Compa- 
ny," on the 5th of July, 177o, obtamed from ten chiefs of the Kaskaskia, Cahokia and 
Peoria tribes, a deed for two large tracts of land. The second tract, in the description 
of its boundaries, contains the following expression: "and thence up the Illinois River, 
by the several courses thereof, to CJiicdr/o, or Garlic Creek:" and it may safely be as- 
sumed tha,t the parties to the deed know the names given to identify the grant. Were 
an additional reference necessary, "Wan Bun," the valuable work of Mrs. John H. 
Kinzie, might also l)e cited, p. 190. The Irocpiois, who made frequent predatory 
excursions from their homes in New York to the Illinois country, called Chicago Kan- 
era- ffhiJ:; ridfi Cadwalder Colden's " History of the Five Nations." 



MISFOKTUNES OF LA SALLE's COLONY, 89 

way, and finally seized upon Fort Frontenac. To obtain redress, La- 
Salle went to France, reaching Koclielle on tlie 13th of December, 
1083. Seignehiy (yoimg- ('olbert), Secretary of State and Minister of 
the Marine, was appealed to by La Salle, and became interested and 
furnished him timely aid in his enterprise. 

Before leaving America La Salle ordered Tonti to proceed and finish 
'• Fort St. Louis," as the fortification at Starved Rock, on the Illinois 
River, was named. " Tie charged me," says Tonti, " with the dnty to 
go and finish F(jrt St. Louis, of which he gave me the government, 
with full power to dispose of the lands in the neighborhood, and left 
all his people under my command, with the exception of six French- 
men, whom he took to accompany him to Quebec. We departed from 
Mackinaw on the same day, he for Canada and I for the Illinois.* On 
his mission to France La Salle was received with honor bv the kina: 
and his officers, and the accounts which he gave relative to Louisiana 
caused them to further his plans for its colonization. A squadron of' 
four vessels was fitted out. the largest carrying thirt^'-six guns. About 
two hundred persons were embarked aboard of them for the purpose 
long projected, as we have foreseen, of establishing a settlement at the 
mouth of the Mississippi. The fleet was under the command of M. 
de Beaujeu, a naval officer of some distinction. He was punctilious in 
the exercise of authority, and had a wiry, nervous organization, as the 
portrait preserved of him clearly shows.f La Salle was austere, and 
lacked that faculty of getting along with men, for the want of which 
many of his best-laid plans failed. A constant bickering and collision 
of cross purposes was the natural result of such repellant natures as 
he and Beaujeu possessed. 

After a stoi'uiy passage of the Atlantic, the fleet entered the Gulf 
of Mexico. Coasting along the northern shore of the gulf, they failed 
to discover the mouths of the Mississippi. Passing them, they finally 
landed in what is now known as Matagorda Bay, or the Bay of St. 
Barnard, near the River Colorado, in Texas, more than a hundred 
leagues westward of the Mississippi. The whole number of persons 
left on the beach is not definitel}' known. M. Joutel, one of the sur- 
vivors, and the chronicler of this unfortunate undertaking, mentions 
one hundred and eighty, l)esides the crew of the " Belle," which was 
lost on the beach, consisting of soldiers, volunteers, workmen, women 
and children. :{: The colony being in a destitute condition. La Salle, 

* Tonti 's Memoir. 

+ A fine steel en^ravingr copy of Mons. Beaujeu is contained in Dr. Shea's transla- 
tion of Charlevoix's " History of New France." 
tSpark's " Life of La Salle." 



90 HISTORIC NOTES OX THE NORTHWEST. 

accompanied b}' Father Anastius Douay and twenty others, set out to 
reach the Mississip})!, intendini^ to ascend to Fort St. Louis, and there 
obtain aid IVoni Tonti. They set out on the 7th of January, and after 
several days' joui-ney, reached the village of the Cenis Indians. Here 
some of La Salle's men became dissatisfied with their hardships, and 
determined to slay him and then join the Indians. The tragic tale is 
thus related by Father Douay : " The wisdom of Monsieur de La Salle 
was unable to foresee the plot which some of his people would make 
to slay his nephew, as they suddenly resolved to do, and actually 
did, on the 17th of March, by a blow of an ax, dealt by one Liotot. 
They also killed the valet of the Sieur La Salle and his Indian ser- 
vant, Nika, who, at the risk of his life, had supported them for three 
years. The wretches resolved not to stop here, and not satisfied 
with this murder, formed a design of attempting their commander's 
life, as they had reason to fear his resentment and chastisement. As 
M. La Salle and myself were walking toward the fatal spot where his 
nephew had been slain, two of those murderers, who were hidden in 
the grass, arose, one on each side, with guns cocked. One missed Mon- 
sieur La Salle ; the other, tiring at the same time, shot him in the head. 
He died an hour after, on the 19th of March, 1G8T. 

" Thus," says Father Douay, " died our commandei', constant in ad- 
versity, intrepid, generous, engaging, dexterous, skillful, capable of 
everything. He who for twenty years had softened the iierce temper 
of countless savage tribes was massacred by the hands of his own domes- 
tics, whom he had loaded with caresses. He died in the prime of life, 
in the midst of his course and labors, without having seen their success."* 

The colony which La Salle had left in Texas was surprised and 
destroyed by the Indians. Not a soul was left to give an account of 
the massacre. Of the twenty who accompanied him in his attempt to 
reach the Mississippi, Joutel, M. Cavalier, La Salle's brother, and four 
others determined to make a last attempt to lind the Mississippi ; the 
others, including La Salle's murderers, became the associates of the less 
])i'utal Indians, and of them we have no farther account. After a long 
and toilsome journey Joutel and his party readied the Mississippi near 
the mouth of the Arkansas. Here they found two men who had been 
sent b}' Tonti to relieve La Salle. Embarking in canoes, they went up 
the Mississippi, arrived at Fort St. Louis in safet}', and finally returned 
to France by way of Quebec. 

From this period until 1098 the French made no further attempts 
to colonize tlie Lower Mississippi. They had no settlements below the 

*Fa:her Douay's Journal, contained in Dr. Shea's " Discovery and Exploration of the 
Mississippi." 



HILOXI AND MOBIl.K FOUNDED. 91 

Ohio, and above that river, on the Illinois and the upper lakes, were 
scattered only a few missions and trading posts. 

Realizing the great importance of" retaining possession of the Mis- 
sissippi valley, the French court tittetl out an expedition which con- 
sisted of four vessels, for the pui'pose of thoroughly exploring the mouth 
of the Mississippi and adjacent territory. Le Moyne Iberville was put 
in command of the expedition. He was the third of the eleven sons 
of Baron Longueil. They all held commissions from tlie king, and con- 
stituted one of the most illustrious of the French Canadian families. 
The fleet sailed from Brest, Finance, on the 24th of October, 1698. 
They came in sight of Florida on the 27tli of January, 1699. They 
ran near the coast, and discovered that they wei-e in the vicinity of 
Pensacola Bay. Here they found a colony of three hundred Spaniards. 
Sailing westward, they entered the mouth of the Mississijipi on Quin- 
quagesima Monday, which M'as the 2d of March. Iberville ascended 
the river far enough to assure himself of its being the Mississippi, then, 
descending the river, he founded a colony at Biloxi Bay. Leaving his 
brother, M. do Sauvole, in command of the newly erected fort, he sailed 
for France. Iberville returned to Biloxi on the 8tli of January, and, 
hearing that the English were exploring the Mississippi, he took formal 
possession of the Mississippi valley in the name of the French king. 
He, also, erected a small four-gun fort on Poverty Point, 38 miles below 
Kew Orleans. The fort was constructed very rudel}', and was occupied 
for only one year. In the year 1701 Iberville made a settlement at 
Mobile, and this soon became the principal French town on the gulf. 
The unavailing efforts of the king in the scheme of colonization induced 
a belief that a greater prosperity would follow nnder the stimulus of 
individual enterprise, and he determined to grant Louisiana to Monsieur 
Crozat, with a monopoly of its mines, supposed to be valuable in gold 
and silver, together with the exclusive right of all its commerce for the 
period of fifteen years. The patent or grant of Louis to M. Crozat is 
an interesting document, not only because it passed the title of the 
Mississippi valley into the hands of one man, but for the reason that it 
embraces a part of the history of the country ceded. We, therefore, 
quote the most valuable part of it. The instrument bears date Sep- 
tember 12th, 1712 : 

" Louis (the fourteenth). King of France and Navarre ; To all who 
shall see these presents, greeting : The care we have alwaj's had to 
procure the welfare and advantage of our subjects, having induced us, 
notwithstanding the almost continual wars which we have been en- 
gaged to support from the beginning of our reign, to seek all possible 
opportunities of enlarging and extending the trade of our American 



92 HISTORIC NOTES OX THE N'ORTHWKST. 

colonies, wo did, in the year l(iS3, give our orders to undertake a dis- 
C'over}' of the countries and hinds which are situated in tlie northern 
parts of America, between New France (Canada) and New Mexico. 
And the Sieui- de La Salle, to whom we connnitted that enterprise, 
liavini^- had success enough to confirm the belief that a communication 
might l)e settled from New France to the (xulf of Mex»ico by means of 
large rivers; this obliged us, innnediately after the peace of llyewick 
(in 1697), to give orders for the establishment of a colony there (uiuler 
Iberville in 1699), and maintaining a garrison, which has kept and 
preserved the possession we had taken in tlie year 1083, of the lands, 
coasts and islands which are situated in the Gulf of Mexico, between 
Carolina on the east, and old and New Mexico on the west. But a 
new M'ar breaking out in Europe shortly after, there was no possi- 
bility till now of reaping from that new colony the advantages that 
might have been expected from thence ; because the private men who 
are concerned in the sea trade were all under engagements with the 
other colonies, which they have been obliged to follow. And where- 
as, upon the information we have received concerning the disposition 
and situation of the said countries, known at present by the name of 
the province of Louisiana, we ai'e of opinion that there may be estab- 
lislied therein a considerable commerce, so nnich the more advan- 
tageous to our kingdom in that there has been hitherto a necessit}^ of 
fetching from foreigners the greatest part of the commodities that may 
be brought from thence ; and because in exchange thereof we need 
carry thither nothing but the commodities of the growth and manu- 
facture of our own kingdom ; we have resolved to grant the com- 
merce of the country of Louisiana to the Sieur Anthony Crozat, 
our counsellor, secretary of the household, crown and i-evenue, to 
whom we intrust the execution of this project. We are the more 
readily inclined thereto because of his zeal and the singular knowledge 
he has acquired of maritime commerce, encourages us to hope for as 
good success as he has hitherto had in the divers and sundrj^ enter- 
prises he has gone upon, and which have procured to our kingdom great 
quantities of gold and silver in such conjectures as have rendered them 
very welcome to us. For these reasons, being desii'ous to show our 
favor to him, and to regulate tlie conditions upon which we mean to 
grant him the said commerce, after having deliberated the affair in our 
council, of our own certain knowledge, full power and royal authority, 
we by these ])resents, signed by our hand, have appointed and do ap- 
point the said Sieui- (^rozat to carry on a trade in all the lands pos- 
sessed by us, and bounded by New Mexico and by the English of Caroli- 
na, all the establishments, ports, havens, rivers, and particularly the port 



LOUISIANA GKANTEI) TO CROZAT. 93 

and haven of Isle Dauphin, heretofore called Massacre; the river St, 
Lonis, heretofore called Mississippi, from the edge of the sea as far as 
the Illinois,* together with tlie river St. Philip, heretofore called Mis- 
souris, and St. Jerome, heretofore called the Onabache (the Wabasli), 
with all the countries, territories, lakes within land, and the rivers which 
fall directly or indirectly into that part of the river St. Louis. Our 
pleasure is, that all the aforesaid lands, countries, streams, rivers and 
islands, be and remain comprised under the name of the Government 
OF Louisiana, which shall be dependent upon the general government 
of New France, to which it is subordinate." 

Crozat was permitted to search and open mines, and to pay the 
king one-iifth part of all the gold and silver developed. Work in de- 
veloping the mines was to be begnn in three years, under penalty of 
forfeitui-e. Crozat was required to send at least two vessels annually 
from France to sustain the colonies already established, and for the 
maintenance of trade. 

The next year, 1713, there were, within the limits of Crozat's vast 
grant, not more than four hundred persons of European descent. 

Crozat himself did little to increase the colony, the time of his 
subordinates being spent in roaming over the country in search of the 
precious metals. lie became wearied at the end of three years spent 
in profitless adventures, and, in 1717, surrendered his grant back to the 
crown. In August of the same year the French king turned Louis- 
iana over to the " Western Company," or the " Mississippi Company," 
subsequently called " The Company of the Indies," at whose head 
stood the famous Scotch banker, John Law. The rights ceded to Law's 
company were as broad as the gi'ant to Crozat. Law was an infla- 
tionist, believing that wealth could be created without limit by the 
mere issuing of paper money, and his wild schemes of finance were 
the most ruinous that ever deluded and bankrupted a confiding people. 
J^ouisiana, with its real and undeveloped wealth a hundred times mag- 

* The expression, " as far as the Illinois," did not refer to the river of that name, 
but to the country generally, on Imtli sides of the Mississippi, (iborf the moitth of the 
Ohio, which, under both the French and Spanish governments was denominated "the 
country of the iUmois," and this designation appeared in all their records and official 
letters. For example, letters, deeds, and other official documents bore date, respect- 
ively, at Kaskaskia, of the Illinois; St. Louis, of the Illinois; St. Charles, of the Illi- 
nois; not to identify the village where such instruments were executed merely, but to 
denote the country in which these villages were situated. Therefore, the monopoly of 
Crozat, by the terms of his patent, extended to the utmost limit of Louisiana, north- 
ward, which, by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, was fixed at the 49th° of latitude; ride 
Stoddard's "Sketches of Louisiana." Brackenridge's "Views of Louisiana." From 
the year 1700 until some time subsequent to the conquest of the country by the British, 
in 17G3, a letter or document executed anywhere within the present limits of the states 
of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, or Missouri, would have borne the superscription oV'Les 
lUinoix,'' or '"the Illinois.'" 



1)4 HISTORIC NOTKS ON THE NORTHWEST. 

Tiified, became tlie basis of a fictitious value, on whicli an enoj-nious 
viilunie of stock, convertible into paper money, was issued. The stuck 
rose in the market like a balloon, and cliainberniaids, alike ■with 
wealthy ladies, barbers and bankers, — indeed, the whole French peo- 
ple, — gazing at tiie ascending ])henonienon, grew nuid with the desire 
for speedy wealth. The French debt was paid oil"; the depleted treasury- 
filled ; poor men and women were made rich in a few days Ijy the con- 
stantly advancing value of the stocks of the " (Company of the West.'' 
Confidence in the ultimate wealth of Louisiana was all that was re- 
(piired, and this was given to a degree that would not now be credited 
as true, were not the facts beyond dispute. 

After awhile the balloon exploded ; people began to doubt ; they 
realized that mere confidence was not solid value; stocks declined; 
they awoke to a sorrowful contemplation of their delusion and ruin. 
Law, from the summit of his glory as a financier, fell into ignominy, 
and to escape bodily harm fled the countiy ; and Louisiaiui, from be- 
ing the source of untold wealth, sunk into utter ruin and contempt. 

It should be said to the credit of "the company" that they made 
some efforts toward the cultivation of the soil. The growth of tobacco, 
sugar, rice and indigo was encoui-aged. Negroes were imported to till 
the soil. New Orleans was laid out in 1718, and the seat of govern- 
ment of lower Louisiana subsequently established there. A settlement 
was made about Natchez. A large nuniber of German emigrants were 
located on the Mississippi, from whom a portion of the Mississippi has 
ever since been known as the " Gei'man coast." The French settle- 
ments at Kaskaskia and Cahokia, begun, as appears from most authen- 
tic accounts, about the year 1700, — certainly not later, — -were largely 
increased by emigration from Canada and Fi'ance. In the year 1718 
the " Company ot the West " erected a fortification near Kaskaskia, and 
named it Fort Chartes, having a charter from the crown so to do. It 
is situated in the northwest corner of Randol])h county, Illinois, on the 
American bottom. It was garrisoned with a small number of soldiei's, 
and was made the seat of government of " the Illinois." Under the 
mild government of the " Company," the Illinois marked a steady 
prosperity, and Fort Chartes became the center of business, fashion and 
gaiety of all "the Illinois c'ountry." In 1756 the fort was reconstruct- 
ed, this time with solid stone. Its shape was an irregular (juadrangle, 
the exterior sides of the polygon l)eing four hundred and ninety feet, 
and the walls were two feet two inches thick, pierced with port-holes 
for cannon. The walls of tlie fort were eighteen feet high, and con- 
tained within, guard houses, government house, barracks, ])owder 
house, bake house, prison and store room. A very minute description 



FORT CHAKTES. 95 

is given of the wliole structure within and without in the minutes of 
its surrender, October 10, 1765, by Louis St. Ange de Belrive, captain 
of infantry and commandant, and Joseph Le Febvre, the king's store- 
keeper and acting commissary of the fort, to Mr. Sterling, deputed by 
Mr. De Gage (Gage), governor of New York and commander of His 
Majesty's troops in America, to receive possession of tlie fort and coun- 
try from the French, according to tlie seventeenth article of the treaty 
of peace, concluded on the 10th of February, 1763, between the kings 
of France and Great Britain.* Fort Chartes was the strongest and 
most elaborately constructed of any of the French works of defense in 
America. Here the intendants and sevei-al commandants in charo-e, 
whose will was law, governed "the Illinois," administered justice to 
its inhabitants, and settled up estates of deceased persons, for nearly 
half a century. From this place the English commandants governed 
"the Illinois,"' some of them with great injustice and severity, from 
the time of its surrender, in 1765, to 1772, when a great flood inun- 
dated the American Bottom, and the Mississippi cut a new channel so 
near the fort that the M-all and two bastions on the west side were un- 
dermined and fell into the river. The British garrison then abandoned 
it, and their headquarters were afterward at Kaskaskia. 

Dr. Beck, while collecting material for his " Gazetteer of Illinois 
and Missouri," in 1820, visited the ruins of old Fort Chartes. At that 
time enough remained to show the size and strength of this remarkable 
fortification. Trees over two feet in diameter were growing within its 
Avails, The ruin is in a dense forest, hidden in a tangle of under- 
growth., furnishing a sad memento of the efforts and blasted hopes of 
La Belle France to colonize ^''Les Illinoixr 

* The articles of surrender are given at length in the Paris Documents, vol. 10, 
pp. 1161 to 1166. 



CHAPTER XII. 

SURRENDER OF LOUISIANA BY THE INDIES COMPANY— EARLY ROUTES. 

In IT^U the company of tlie Indies surrendered to France, Louisiana, 
with its forts, colonies and phmtations, and from this period forward to 
the time of the conquest by Great Britain and the Anglo-American 
colonics, Louisiana was governed through officers appointed by the 
crown. 

We have shown how, when and where colonies were permanently 
established by the French in Canada, about Kaskaskia, and in Lower 
Louisiana. It is not within the scope of our incpiiries to follow these 
settlements of the French in their subsequent development, but rather 
now to show how the establishments of the French along the lakes 
and near the gulf communicated with, each other, and the routes of 
travel by which they were connected. 

The convenient way between Quebec and the several villages in the 
vicinity of Kaskaskia was around the lakes and down the Illinois 
Kiver, either by way of the St. Joseph River and the Kankakee port- 
age or through Chicago Creek and the Des Plaines. The long winters 
and severe climate on the St. Lawrence made it desirable for many 
people to abandon Canada for the more genial latitudes of southern 
Illinois, and the still warmer regions of Louisiana, where snows were 
unknown and flowers grew the year round. It only required the pro- 
tection of a fort or other military safeguards to induce the Canadians 
to change their homes from Canada to niore favorable localities 
southward. 

The most feasible route between Canada and the Lower Mississippi 
settlements was by the Ohio River. This communication, howevei", 
was effectually barred against the French. The Iroquois Indians, from 
the time of Chanq^lain, were allies, first of the Dutch and then of the 
English, and the implacable enemies of the French. The upper waters 
of the Ohio were within the acknowledged territory of the Ii-oquois, 
Avhose possessions extended westward of New York and Pennsylvania 
well toward the Scioto. The Ohio below Pittsburgh was, also, in the 
debatable ground of the Miamis northward, and Chickasaws south- 
ward. These nations were warring upon each other continually, and 

96 



THE MAUMEE AXD WABASH ROUTE. 97 

the country for many miles beyond either bank of the Ohio was 
infested with war parties of the contending tribes.* 

There were no Indian villages near the Ohio River at the period 
concerning which we now write. Subsequent to this the Shawnees and 
Delawares, previously subdued by the Iroquois, were permitted by the 
latter to establish their towns near the confluence of the Scioto, Mus- 
kingum and other streams. The valley of the Ohio was within the 
conlines of the " dark and bloody ground." Were a voyager to see 
smoke ascending above the forest line he would know it was from the 
camp tire of an enemy, and to be a place of danger. It would indi- 
cate the presence of a hunting or war party. If they had been suc- 
cessful they would celebrate the event by the destruction of whoever 
would commit himself to their hands, and if unfortunate in the chase 
or on the war-path, disappointment would give a sharper edge to their 
cruelty, f 

The next and more reliable route was that afforded by the Maumee 
and "VVabash, laying within the territory of tribes friendly to the 
French. The importance of this route was noticed by La Salle, in his 
letter to Count Frontenac, in 1683, before quoted. La Salle says: "There 
is a river at the extremity of Lake Erie,:}: within ten leagues of the 
strait (Detroit River), which will very much shorten the way to the 
Illinois, it being navigable for canoes to within two leagues of their 
river." § As early as 1699, Mons. De Iberville conducted a colony of 
Canadians from Quebec to Louisiana, by way of the Maumee and "Wa- 
bash. " These were followed by other families, under the leadership 
of M. Du Tessenet. Emigrants came by land, first ascending the St. 
Lawrence to Lake Erie, then ascending a river emptying into that lake 
to the portage oi Des 2fiamis ; their effects being thence transported 
to the river Miarais, where pirogues, constructed out of a single tree, 
and large enough to contain thirty persons, were built, with which the 
voyage down the Mississippi was prosecuted." I This memoir corre- 
sponds remarkably well with the claim of Little Turtle, in his speech 
to Gen. Wayne, concerning the antiquitv of the title, in his tribe, to 
the portage of the Wabash at Fort Wayne, it also illustrates the 
fact that among the first French settlers in lower Louisiana were 

* A Miami chief said that his nation had no tradition of " a time when they were 
not at war with the Chickasaws." 

t General William H. Harrison's Address before the Historical Society of Cin- 
cinnati. 

X The Maumee. 

S Meaning the Wabash. 

II Extract taken from a memoir, showing that the first establishments in Louisiana 
were at Mobile, etc., the original manuscript being among the archives in the depart- 
ment " De la Marine et Des Colonies," in Paris, France. 
7 



98 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

those who found their way thither through the " glorious gate," be- 
longing to the Miamis, connecting the Mauniee and Wabash. 

Originally, the Maumee was known to the French as the "Miami," 
" Oumiami," or the " River of the Miamis," from the fact that bands 
of this tribe of Indians had villages upon its banks. It was also called 
" Ottawa," or " Tawwa," which is a contraction of the word Ottawa, 
as families of this tribe "resided on this river from time immemorial." 
The Shawnee Indian name is " Ottawa-sepe," that is " Ottawa Eiver." 
By the Hurons, or Wyandots, it was called " Cagh-a-ren-du-te," the 
" River of the Standing Rock." * Lewis Evans, whose map was pub- 
lished in 1755, and which is, perhaps, the first English map issued of 
the territory lying north and west of the Ohio River, lays down the 
Miami as " Mine-a-mi," a way the Pennsylvania Indian traders had of 
pronouncing the word Miami. In 1703, Mons Cadillac, the French 
commandant at Detroit, in his application for a grant of land six 
leagues in breadth on either side of the Maumee, upon which he pro- 
posed to propagate silk-worms, refers to the river as " Grand River " f 
As early as 1718 it is mentioned as the "Miamis River," :]: and it bore 
this name more generally than that of any other from 1718 to a pe- 
riod subsequent to the War of 1812. Capt Robert M'Afee, who was 
in the various campaigns up and down the Maumee during the War 
of 1812, and whose history of this war, published at Lexington, Ky., 
in 1816, gives the most authentic account of the military movements 
in this quarter, makes frequent mention of the river by the name of 
" Miami," occasionally designating it as the " Miami of the Lake." 

Gen, Joseph Harmar, in his report of the military expedition con- 
ducted by him to Fort Wayne, in October, 1700, calls the Miami the 
"Omee." He says: "As there are three Miamis in the northwestern 
territory, all bearing the name of Miami, I shall in the future, for dis- 
tinction's sake, when- speaking of the Miami of the Lake, call it the 
' Omee,' and its towns the Omee Towns. By this name they are best 
known on the frontier. It is only, however, one of the many corrup- 
tions or contractions universally used among the French-Americans in 
pronouncing Indian names. 'Au-Mi,' for instance, is the contraction 
for 'Au Miami.' " § 

The habit of the " Coureur de Bois" and others using the mongrel 
language of the border Canadians, as well, also, the custom prevailing 

* "Account of the Present State of Indian Tribes, etc., Inhabiting Ohio." By John 
Johnson, Indian Agent, June 17, 1819. Published in vol. 1 of Arch;eologia Americana. 

t Sheldon's History of Michigan, p. 108. 

i Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 88G and 891. 

% Gen. Harmar's official letter to the Secretary of War, under date of November 23, 
1790, published in the American State Papers. 



ORIGIN OF THE NAME MAUMEE. 99 

among this class of persons in giving nicknames to rivers and locali- 
ties, has involved other observers besides Gen. Harmar in the same 
perplexity. Thomas Hutchins, the American geographer, and Capt. 
Harry Gordon visited Kaskaskia and the adjacent territory subsequent 
to the conquest of the northwest territory from the French, and be- 
came hopelessly entangled in the contractions and epithets applied to 
the surrounding villages on both sides of the Mississippi. Kaskaskia 
was a1)breviated to '■'■ Au-kas^'''' and St. Louis nicknamed "Pain Court" 
— Sho7't Bread; Carondelet was called ^'■Vide Pouche''^ — Empty 
Pocket; Ste. Genevieve was called "Missier" — Misery. The Kas- 
kaskia, after being shortened to Au-kaus, pronounced " Okau," has 
been further corrupted to Okaw, and at this day we have the singu- 
lar contradiction of the ancient Kaskaskia being called Kaskaskia near 
its mouth and " Okaw " at its source. 

The Miamis, or bands of their tribe, had villages in order of time ; 
first on the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, then upon the Maumee; after 
this, 1750, they, with factions of other tribes who had become disaffected 
toward the French, established a mixed village upon the stream now 
known as the Great Miami, which empties into the Ohio, and in this way 
the name of Miami has been transferred, successively, from the St. Jo- 
seph to the Miami, and from the latter to the present Miami, with 
which it has become permanentl)' identified.* The Miamis were, also, 
called the " Mau-mees," — this manner of spelling growing out of one 
of the several methods of pronouncing the word Miami — and it is 
doubtless from this source that the name of Maumee is derived f 

In this connection we may note the fact that the St. Marys and the 
Au-glaize were named by the Shawnee Lidians, as follows; The first 
was called by this tribe, who had several villages upon its banks, the 
" Co-kothe-ke-sepe," Kettle River; and the Auglaize "Cowthen-e- 
ke-sepe," or Fallen Timber River. These aboriginal names are given 
by Mr. John Johnson, in his published account of the Indian tribes 
before referred to.:}: 

We will now give a derivation of the name of the Wabash, which 
has been the result of an examination of a number of authorities. 
Early French writers have spelled the word in various ways, each en- 
deavoring, with more or less success, to represent the name as the sev- 

*The aboriginal name of the Great Miami was "Assin-erient," or Rocky River, 
from the word As^sin, or Ussin, the Algonquin appellation for stone or stony. Lewis 
Evan's map of 1755. 

t In an official letter of Gen. Harrison to the Secretary of War, dated March 22, 
1814, the name '' Miamis " and ''Maumees " are given as synonymous terms, referring 
to the same tribe. 

t Mr. Johnson had charge of the Indian affairs in Ohio for many years, and was 
especially acquainted with the Shawnees and their language. 



to^C. 



100 HISTORIC NOTES ON" THE NORTHWEST. 

eral Algonquin tribes pronounced it. First, we have Father Marquette's 
orthography, " Oua-bous-kigou ; " and bj hiter French authorities it is 
spelled "Abache," "Ouabache," '^ Oubashe,'' " Oubache," " Oubash," 
" Oubask," " Oubache,'' " Wabascou," " Wabache," and " Waubache." 
It should be borne in mind that the French alphabet does not contain 
the letter TF, and that the diphthong " ou " with the French has nearly 
the same sound as the letter AY of the English alphabet. The Jesuits 
sometimes used a character much like the figure S, which is a Greek 
contraction formulated by them, to represent a peculiar guttural sound 
among the Indians, and which we often, though imperfectly, represent 
by the letter W, or AVau.* 

That Wabash is an Indian name, and was early applied to the stream 
that now bears this name, is clearly established by Father Gravier. 
This missionary descended the Mississippi in the year 1700, and speak- 
ing of the Ohio and its tributaries, says : " Three branches are assigned 
to it, one that comes from the northwest (the Wabash), passing 
behind the country of the Oumiamis, called the St. Joseph,t which 
the Indians properly call the Oualmcliei', the second comes from the 
Iroquois (whose country included the head-waters of the Ohio), 
and is called the Ohio ; and the third, which comes from the Chaou- 
anona:}; (Shawnees). And all of them uniting to empty into the Mis- 
sissippi, it is commonly called Ouabachi." § 

In the variety of manner in which AVabash is spelled in the exam- 
ples given above, we clearl}^ trace the Waiv-bish-haiv, of the Ojibe- 
ways ; the Wahisca (pronounced AVa-bis-sa) of the modern Algon- 
quin ; Wau-hish of the Menominees, and Wa-hi of the ancient Algon- 
quins, words which with all these kindred tongues mean White.l 

Therefore the aboriginal of Wabash (Sepe) should be rendered 
White River. This theory is supported by Lewis Evans, who for many 
years was a trader among the Indians, inhabiting the country drained 
by the AVabash and its tributary waters. The extensive knowledge 
which he acquired in his travels westward of the Alleghanies resulted 

* Shea's Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi, p. 41, foot-note. For 
example, we find in the Journal of Marquette, 8ab'Ski(/8, for Wabash. The same man- 
ner of spelling is also observed in names, as written by other missionaries, where they 
design to represent the sound of the French " ou," or the English W. 

t Probably a mistake of the copyist, and which should be the St. Jerome, a name 
given by the French to the Wabash, as we have seen in the extracts taken from Crozat's 
grant. Dr. Shea has pointed out numerous mistakes maxle by the copyist of the man- 
uscripts from which the " Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi " are composed. 

X The Tennessee. 

S Father Gravier's Journal in Dr. Shea's Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi, 
pp. 120, 121. 

II The several aboriginal names for white, which we have given above, are taken 
from the vocabularies of Mackenzie, Dr. Ewin James and Albert Gallatin, which are 
regarded as standard authorities. 



ORIGIN OF THE NAME WABASH. 101 

in liis publisliing, in 1755, a map, accompanied with an extended de- 
scription of the territory it embraced. In descril)ing the Wabash, Mr. 
Evans calls it by the name the Iroquois Indians had given it, viz : the 
" Quia-agh-tena,'' and says " it is called by the French Ouabach, though 
that is truly the name of its southeastern branch." Why the White 
Eiver, of Indiana, which is the principal southeastern branch of the 
Wabash, should have been invested with the English meaning of the 
word, and the aboriginal name should have been retained by the river 
to which it has always properly belonged, is easily exj^lained, when we 
consider the ignorance and carelessness of many of the early travelers, 
whose writings, coming down to us, have tended to confuse rather than 
aid the investigations of the modern historian. The Ohio River helow 
the confluence of the Wabash is designated as the Wabash by a majority 
of the early French writers, and so laid down on many of the contem- 
poraneous maps. This was, probably, due to the fact that the Wabash 
was known and used before the Ohio had been explored to its mouth. 
So fixed has become the habit of calling the united waters of these two 
streams Wabash, from their union continuously to their discharge into 
the Mississippi, that the custom prevailed long after a better knowledge 
of the geography of the country suggested the propriety of its aban- 
donment. Even after the French of Canada accepted the change, and 
treated the Ohio as the main river and the Wabash as the tributary, the 
French of Louisiana adhered to the old name. 

We quote from M. Le Page Du Pratz' History of Louisiana:* 
" Let us now repass the Mississippi in order to resume a description of 
the lands to the east, which we quit at the river Wahash. This river 
is distant from the sea four hundred and sixty leagues; it is reckoned 
to have four hundred leagues in length from its source to its conflu- 
ence with the Mississippi. It is called Wabash, though, according to 
the usual method, it ought to be called the Ohio, or Beautiful River,f 
seeing the Oliio was known under that name before its confluence 
was known ; and as the Ohio takes its rise at a greater distance off 
than the three others which mix together before they empty them- 
selves into the Mississippi, this should make the others lose their 

*The author was for sixteen years a planter of Louisiana, having gone thither from 
France soon after the Company of the West or Indes restored the country to the crown. 
He was a gentleman'of superior attamments, and soon acquired a thorough knowledge 
of the French possessions in America. He returned to France, and m 1758 published 
his " History of Louisiana," with maps, which, in 1763, was translated into English. 
These volumes are largely devoted to the experience of the author in the cultivation of 
rice, indigo, sugar and other products congenial to the climate and soil of Louisiana, 
and to quite an extended topographical description of the whole Mississippi Valley. 

tThe Iroquois' name for the Oliio was " 0-io,'' meaning beautiful, and the French 
retained the signification in the name of "Lo Belle Riviere,'" by which the Ohio was 
known to them. 



102 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE' NORTHWEST. 

names; but custom has prevailed in this respect. The first known 
to us which fiills into the Ohio is that of the Miamis (Wabash), which 
takes its rise toward Lake Erie. It is l)v this river of tlie Miamis that 
the Canadians come to Louisiana. For this purpose they embark on 
the River St. Lawrence, go up this river, ]iass the cataracts quite to 
tlie bottom of Lake Erie, where they find a small river, on which they 
also go up to a place called the carriage of the Miamis^ because that 
people come and take their effects and carry them on their backs for 
two leagues from thence to the banks of the river of their name which 
I just said empties itself into the Ohio. From thence the Canadians 
go down that river, enter the Wabash, and at last the Mississippi, 
Avhich brings them to New Orleans, the capital of Louisiana. They 
reckon eighteen hundred leagues from the capital of Canada to that 
of Louisiana, on account of the great turns and windings they are 
obliged to take. The river of the Miamis is thus the first to the north 
which falls into the Ohio, then that of the Chaouanons to the soutli^ 
and lastly, that of the Cherokee, all which together empty themselves 
into the Mississippi, This is what we (in Louisiana) call the Wabash, 
and what in Canada and New England is called the Ohio.'' * 

A failure to i-ecognize the fact that the Ohio below the mouth of the 
Wabash was, for a period of over half a century, known to the French 
as the Wabash, has led not a few later writers to erroneously locate 
ancient French forts and missionary stations upon the banks of the 
Wabash, which were in reality situated many miles below, on the Ohio.f 

* On the map prefixed to Du Pratz' history, the Ohio from the Mississippi up to 
the confluence of the Wabash is called the " Wabash "; above this the Ohio is called 
Ohio, and the Wabash is called "The River of the Miamis," with villages of that 
tribe noted near its source. The Maumee is called the "River of the Carrying' Phice." 
The Upper Mississippi, the Illinois River and the lakes are also laid down, and, alto- 
gether, the map is quite accurate. 

t A noticeable instance of such a mistake will be found relative to the city of Vin- 
cennes. On the authority of La Harpe, and the later historian Charlevoix, the French 
in the year 1700, established a trading post near the inouth of the Ohio, on the site of 
the more modern Fort Massac, in Massac county, 111., for the purpose of securing 
buffalo hides. The neighboring Mascotins, as was customary with the Indians, soon 
gathered about for the purpose of barter. Their numbers, as well as the expressed 
wish of the French traders, induced Father Merraent to visit the place and engage in 
mission work. At the end of four or five years, in 1705, the establishment was broken 
up on account of a quarrel of the Indians among themselves, and which so threatened 
the lives of the Frenchmen that the latter fled, leaving behind their effects and 13.000 
buffalo hides which they had collected. Some years later Father Marest, writing from 
Kaskaskia, in his letter before referred to, relates the failure of Father Merment to 
convert the Indians at //*/>'; " post on the Wabash "; and on the authority of this letter 
alone, and although Father Marest only followed the jirevailing style in calling the 
lower Ohio the Wabash, some writers, tlie late Judge John Law being the first, have 
contended that this post was on the \\'abash and at Vincennes. Charlevoix says "it 
was at the mouth of the Wabash which discharges itself into the Mississippi." La 
Ilarpe, and also Le Suere, whose personal knowledge of the post was contemporaneous 
with its existence, definitely fix its position near the mouth of the Ohio. The latter 
gives the date of its beginning, and the former narrates an account of its trade and 
final abandonment. In this way an antiquity has been claimed for Vincennes to which 
it is not historically entitled. 



EARLY ACCOUNT OF THE MAUMEE. 103 

"We now give a description of the Maumee and Wabash, the location 
of the several Indian villages, and the manners of their inhabitants, 
taken from a memoir prepared in 1718 by a French officer in Canada, 
and sent to the minister at Paris.* 

" I return to the Miamis River. Its entrance from Lake Erie is 
very wide, and its banks on both sides, for a distance of ten leagues 
np, ai-e nothing but continued swamps, abounding at all times, espe- 
cially in the spring, with game without end, swans, geese, ducks, cranes, 
etc., which drive sleep away by the noise of their cries. This river is 
sixty leagues in length, very embarrassing in summer in consequence 
of the lowness of the water. Thirty leagues up the river is a place 
called La Glahe^\ where buffalo are always to be found; they eat the 
clay and wallow in it. The Miamis are sixty leagues from Lake Erie, 
and number four hundred, all well formed men, and well tattooed \X 
the women are numerous. They are hard working, and raise a species 
of maize unlike that of our Indians at Detroit. It is white, of the 
same size as the other, the skin much finer, and the meal much whiter. 
This nation is clad in deer skin, and when a woman goes with another 
man her husband cuts off her nose and does not see her any more. 
They have plays and dances, wherefore they have more occupation. 
The women are well clothed ; but the men use scarcely any covering, 
and are tattooed all over the body. 

" From this Miami village there is a ])ortage of three leagues to a 
little and very narrow stream,§ that falls, after a course of twent}' 
leagues, into the Ohio or Beautiful River, which discharges into the 
Ouabache, a fine river that tails into the Mississippi forty leagues from 
the Cascachias. Into the Ouabache falls also the Casquinampo, | which 
communicates with Carolina; but this is far off, and is always up 
stream. 

"The River Ouabache is the one on which the Ouyatanons*[[ are 
settled. 

"They consist of five villages, which are contiguous the one to the 
other. One is called Oujatanon, the other Peanguichias,** and another 

*The document is quite lengthy, covering all the principal places and Indian tribes 
east of the Mississippi, and showing the compiler possessed a very thorough acquaint- 
ance with the whole subject. It is given entire in the Paris Documents, vol. 9; that 
relating to the Maumee and Wabash on pages 886 to 891. 

t Defiance. Ohio. 

X These villages were near the confluence of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph, and 
this is the first account we have of the present site of Fort Wayne. 

§ Little Kiver, that empties into the Wabash just below Huntington. 

li The Tennessee River. 

"[The " Weas," whose pnncipal villages were near the mouth of Eel River, near 
Logansport, and on the Wea prairie, between Attica and La Fayette. 

**The ancient Piankashaw town was on the Vermilion of the Wabash, and the 
Miami name of the Vermilion was Piankashaw. 



104 HI8T0KIC XOTES ON THE XOKTHWEST. 

Petitscotias, and a fourth Le Gros. Tlie name of the last I do not 
recollect, but they are all Oujatanons, having the same language as the 
Mianiis, whose brothers they are, and properly all Miamis, having the 
same customs and dress.* The men are very numerous; fully a 
thousand or twelve hundred. 

"They liave a custom different from all other nations, which is to 
keep their fort extremely clean, not allowing a blade of grass to remain 
within it. The \vhole of the fort is sanded like the Tuilleries. The 
village is situated on a high hill, and they have over two leagues of 
improvement where they raise their Indian corn, pumpkins and 
melons. From the summit of this elevation nothing is visible to the 
eye but prairies full of buffaloes. Their play and dancing are inces- 
sant.f 

"All of these tribes use a vast quantit}' of vermilion. The women 
wear clothing, the men very little. The River Ohio, or Beautiful river, 
is the route which the Iroquois take. It would be of importance that 
they should not have such intercourse, as it is very dangerous. Atten- 
tion has been called to this matter long since, but no notice has been 
taken of it." 

*The "Le Gros," that is, The Great (village), was probably "Chip-pe-co-ke," or 
the town of "Brush-wood," the name of the old village at Vincennes, which was the 
principal citj' of the Piankashaws. 

tThe village here described is Ouatanon, which was situated a few miles below 
La Fayette, near which, though on the opposite or north bank of the Wabash, the 
Stockade Fort of "Ouatanon" was established by the French. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS— THE SEVERAL ILLINOIS TRIBES. 

The Indians who lived in and claimed the territory to which our 
attention is directed were the several ti'ibes of the Illinois and Miami 
confederacies, — the Pottawatomies, the Kickapoos and scattered bands 
of Shawnees and Delawares. Their t itle to the so il had to be extin- 
guished by conquest or treatise of purchase before the country could 
be settled by a higher civilization ; for the habits of the two races, red 
and white, were so radically different that there could be no fusion, and 
they could not, or rather did not, live either happily or at peace 
together. 

Wc proceed to treat of these several tribes, observing the order in 
which their names have been mentioned; and we do so in this con- 
nection for the reason that it will aid toward a more ready under- 
standing of the subjects which are to follow. 

The Illinois were a subdivision of the great Algonquin family. 
Their language and manners differed somewhat from other surround- 
ing tribes, and resembled most the Miamis, with whom they originally 
bore a very close affinity! Before Joliet and Marquette's voyage to the 
Mississippi, all of the Indians who came from the south to the mission 
at La Pointe, on Lake Superior, for the purposes of barter, were by the 
French called Illinois, for the reason that the first Indians who came 
to La Pointe from the south " called themselves Illinois^ * 

In the Jesuit Relations the name Illinois appears as " Illi-mouek," 
"Illinoues," " Ill-i-ne-wek," " Allin-i-wek " and " Lin-i-wek."' By 
Father Marquette it is " Ilinois," and Hennepin has it the same as it 
is at the present day. The ois was pronounced like our way^ so that 
ouai,, ois^ vjek and ouek were almost identical in ])ronunciation.t 
"Willinis" is Lewis Evans' orthography. Major Thomas Forsyth, 
who for many years was a trader and Indian agent in the territory, and 
8ubse(|uently the state, of Illinois, says the Confederation of Illinois 

* As we have given the name of Ottawas to all the savages ^f these countries, al- 
tlioiigh of different nations, because the first who have appeared among the French 
have been Ottawas; so also it is witn the name of the Illinois, very numerous, and 
dwelling toward the south, because the first who have come to the " point of the Holy 
Ghost for commerce called themselves Illinois." — Father Claude Dablon. in the Jesuit 
Relations for 1670, 1G71. 

t Note by Dr. Shea in the article entitled "The Indian Tribes of Wisconsin," fur- 
nished by him for the Historical Society of Wisconsm, and published in Vol. Ill oi' 
their collections, p. 128. 



106 HISTORIC NOTES ON" THE NORTHWEST. 

" called themselves Linnewaij,''' — wliicli is ulmost identical with the 
Lin-i-ioek of the Jesuits, having a re,<i;ai'(l for its ]n-oper pronuncia- 
tion, — " and that by others they were called Minneway, signifying;- men," 
and that their confederacy embraced the combined Illjnois and ]\Iiand 
tribes; "that all these ditferent bands of the Minneway nation s])oke 
the language of the present Miamis, and the whole considered them- 
selves as one and the same people, yet from their local situation, and 
having no standard to go by, their language became broken np into 
ditferent dialects."* They were by the Iroquois called "■ Chlek-itKjh- 
icksy 

Many theories have been advanced and much fine speculation in- 
dulged in concerning the origin and meaning of the word Illinois. 
"We have seen that the Illinois first made themselves known to the 
French bv that name, and we have never had a better signification ot 
the name than that which the Illinois themselves gave to Fathers Mar- 
quette and Hennepin. The former, in his narrative journal, observes: 
"To say Illinois is, in their language, to say 'the men.' as if other 
Indians, compared to them, were mere beasts.'" f "The word Illinois 
signifies a man of full age in the vigor of his strength. This word Illi- 
nois comes, as it has already been observed, from IlUni, which in the 
language of that nation signifies a perfect and accomj)lished man." X 

Subsequently the name lUini, Linneway, Willinls or Illinois, with 
more propriety became limited to a confederacy, at first composed of 
four subdivisions, Jvuown as the Kaskaskias, Cahokias, Tamaroas and 
Peorias. Not many years before the discovery of the Mississippi by 
the French, a foreign tribe, the Metchigamis, nearly destroyed by wars 
with the Sacs to the north and the Chickasaws to the south, to save 
themselves from annihilation appealed to the Kaskaskias for admission 
into their confederacy. § The request was granted, and the Metchiga- 
mis left their liomes on the Osage river and established their villages 
on the St^ Francis, within the limits of tlie present State of Missouri 
and below the mouth of the Ivaskask ia. 

The subdivision of the Illinois proper into cantons^ as the French 
writers denominate the J'amilies or villages of a nation, like that of 
other tribes was never very distinct. There were no villages exclu - 
sively for a separate branch of the tril)e. Owing to intermarriage, 
adoption and other processes familiar to modern civilization, the sub- 

* Life of Black-Hawk, l)y Benjamin Drake, seventh edition, pp. 16 and 17. 
t Shea's Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley, p. 25. 
X Hennepin's Discovery of America, pp. 35 and 119, London edition, 1698. 
S Charlevoix's " Narrative Journal," Vol. II, p. 228. Also note of B. F. French, p. 
61 of Vol. Ill, First Series of Historical ('ollections of Louisiana. 



/ 



LOCATION OF VILLAGES. 107 



tribal distinctions were not well preserved ; and when Charlevoix, that 
acute ol)server, in 1721 visited these several Illinois villages near Ivas- 
kaskia, their inhabitants were so mixed together and confounded that 
it was almost impossible to distinguish the different branches of the 
tribe from each other.* 

The first accounts we have of the Illinois are given by the Jesuit 
missionaries. In the "Relations" for the yea r 1655 we find that the 
Lin-i-Ouek are neighbors of the Winnebagoes ; again in the " Rela- 
tions" for the next year, "that the Illinois nation dwell more than 
sixty leagues from here, f and beyond a great river, :{: which as near 
as can be conjectured flows into the sea toward Virginia. These 
people are warlike. They use the bo-w, rarely the gun, and never the 
canoe. 

When Joliet and Marquette were descending the Mississippi, they 
found villages of the I[Hnois on the Pes M oines river, and on their 
return they passed through larger villages of the same nation situated 
on the Illin ois river, near Peoria and/higher up the stream. 

"While the Illinois were nomads, though not to the extent of many 
other tribes, they had villages of a somewhat permanent character, and 
when they moved after game they went in a body. It would seem 
from the most authentic accounts that their favon^te^ abiding places 
were on the Illinois river, from the Des Plaines down to its confluence 
with the Mississippi, and on the Mississippi from the Kaskaskia to the 
mouth of the Ohio. This beautiful region abounded in game ; its riv- 
ers were well stocked with flsh, and M^ere frequented by myriads of 
wild fowls. The climate was mild. The soil was fertile. By the 
mere turning of the sod, the lands in the rich river bottoms yielded 
bountiful crops of,.Indian corn^^ melons and squashes. 

In disposition and morals the Illinois were not to be very highly 
commended. Father Charlevoix, speaking of them as they were in 
1700, says: "Missionaries have for some years directed quite a flour- 
ishing church among the Illinois, and they have ever since continued 
to instruct that nation, in whom Christianity had already produced a 
change such as she alone can produce in morals and disposition. Before 
the arrival of the missionaries, there were perhaps no Indians in any 
part of Canada with fewer good qualities a n d more vices. They have 

* " These tribes are at present very much confounded, and are become very inconsid- 
erable. There remains only a very small number of Kaskaskias, and the two villages 
of that name are almost entirely composed of Tamaroas and Mctchigamis, a foreign 
nation adopted by the Kaskaskias, and originally settled on a small river you meet 
■with going down the Mississippi." — Charlevoix' " Narrative Journal," Letter XXVIII, 
dated Kaskaskia, October 20. 1721 ; p. 228. Vol. II. 

t The letter is sent from the Mission of the Holy Ghost, at La Pointe. 

tThe Mississippi. 



108 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

always been mild and docile enou<^h, but they were cowardly, treach- 
erous, fickle, deceitful, thievish, brutal, destitute of faith or honor, 
selfish, addicted to gluttony and the most monstrous lusts, almost un- 
known to the Canada tribes, who accordingly despised them heartily, 
but the Illinois were not a whit less haughty or self-complacent on 
that account. 

" Such allies could bring no great honor or assistance to the French ; 
yet we never had any more faithful, and, if we except the Al)unaqui 
tribes, they are the only, tribe who never sought peace M'ith their ene- 
mies to our prejudice. (They did, indeed, see the necessity of our aid 
to defend themselves against several nations who seemed to have sworn 
their ruin, and especially against the Iroquois and F oxes, who, by con- 
stant harrassing, have somewhat trained them to war, the former taking 
home from their expeditions the vices of that corrupt nation.".'* 

Father Charlevoix' comments upon the Illinois confirm the state- 
ments of Hennepin, who says : " They are lazy vagabonds, timorous, 
pettish thieves, and so fond of their liberty that they have no great 
respect for their chiefs."t 

Their cabins were constructed of mats, made out of flags, spread 
over a frame of poles driven into the ground in a circular form and 
drawn together at the top. 

" Their villages," says Father Hemiepin,;}; " are open, not enclosed 
with palisades because they had no courage to defend them ; they would 
fiee as they heard their enemies approaching." Before their acquaint- 
ance with the French they had no knowledge of iron and fire-arms. 
Their two principal weapons were the bow and arrow and the club. 
Their arrows were pointed with stone, and their tomahawks were made 
out of stag's horns, cut in the shape of a cutlass and terminating in a 
large ball. In the use of the bow and arrow, all writers agree, that 
the Illinois excelled all neighboring tribes. For protection against the 
missies of an enemy they used bucklers composed of buftalo hides 
stretched over a wooden frame. 

In form they were tall and lithe. They were noted for their swift- 
ness of foot. They wore moccasins prepared from buftalo hides ; and, 
in summer, this generally completed their dress. Sometimes they M'ore 
a small covering, extending from the waist to the knees. The rest of 
the body was entirely nude. 

The women, beside cultivating the soil, did all of the household 
drudgery, carried the game and made the clothes. The garments 

* Charlevoix's " History of New France," vol. 5, page 130. 
t Hennepin, page 132, London edition, 1698. 
t Page 132. 



MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 109 

were prepared from buffalo hides, and from the soft wool that grew 
upon these animals. Both the wool and hides were dyed with bril- 
liant colors, black, yellow or vermilion. In this kind of work the 
Illinois women were greatly in advance of other tribes. Articles of 
dress were sewed together with thread made from the nerves and ten- 
dons of deer, prepared by exposure to the sun twice in every twenty- 
four hours. After which the nerves and tendons were beaten so that 
their fibers would separate into a tine white thread. The clothing of 
the women was something like the loose wrappers worn by ladies of 
the present day. Beneath the wrapper were petticoats, for warmth in 
winter. • With a fondness for finery that characterizes the feminine sex 
the world over, the Illinois women wore liead-di-esses, contrived more 
for ornament than for use. The feet were covered with moccasins, and 
leggings decorated with quills of the porcupine stained in colors of 
brilliant contrasts. Ornaments, fashioned out of clam shells and other 
hard substances, were worn about the neck, wrists and ankles ; these, with 
the face, hands and neck daubed with pigments, completed the toilet of 
the highly fashionable Illinois belle. 

Tlieir food consisted of the scanty products of their fields, and prin- 
cipally of game and fish, of which, as previously stated, there was in 
yfeheir country a great abundance. Father AUouez, wlio visited them in 
1673, stated that they had fourteen varieties of herbs and forty-two 
varieties of fruits which they use for food. Their plates and other 
dishes were made of wood, and their spoons were constructed out of 
buffalo bones. The dishes for boiling food were earthen, sometmies 
glazed. - 

From all accounts, it seems that the Illinois claimed an extensive 
tract of country, bounded on the east by the ridge that divides the 
waters flowing into the Illinois from the streams that drain into the 
Wabash above the head waters of Saline creek, and as high up the Illi- 
nois as the Des Plaines, extending westward of the Mississippi, and 
reaching northward to the debatable ground between the Illinois, 
Chippeways. Winnebagoes, Sacs and Foxes. Their favorite and most 
populous cities were on the Illinois river, near Starved Rock, and 

* The account we have given of the manners, habits and customs of the lUinois is 
compiled from the following authorities : La Hontan, Charlevoix, Hennepin, Tonti, 
Marquette, Joutel, the missionaries Marest, Rasles and AUouez. Besides, the historic 
letter of Marest, found in Kip's Jesuit Missions, is another from this distinguished 
priest, written from Kaskaskia to M. Bienville, and incorporated in Penicaut's Annals 
of Louisiana, a translation of which is contained in the Historical Collections of Louisi- 
ana and Florida, by B. F. French. In this letter of Father Marest, dated in 1711, is a 
very fine description of the customs of the Illinois Indians, and their prosperous condi- 
tion at Kaskaskia and adjacent villages. 



110 HISTORIC XOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

belo^^^ as far as Peoria. The missionary station fonnded by Father 
Marquette was, in all probability, near the latter place. 

Prior to the year 1700, Father Marest had charge of a mission at 
the neck, strait or narrows of Peoria lake. In Peoria lake, above 
Peoria, is a contracted channel, and this is evidently referred to by 
Father Gravier in his " Narrative Journal" where he states: " I ar- 
rived too late at the Illinois du Detroit, of whom Fatiier Marest has 
charge, to prevent the transmigration of the village of the Kaskaskias, 
which was too precipitately made on vague news of the establishment 
on the Mississippi. I do not believe that tlie Kaskaskias would have 
thus separated from the Peouaroua and other Illinois du Detroit. At 
all events, I came soon enough to unite minds a little, and to prevent 
the insult which the Peouaroua and the Mouin-gouena were bent on 
offering to the Kaskaskias and French as they embarked. I spoke to 
all the chiefs in full council, and as they continued to preserve some 
respect and good will for me, we separated very peaceably. But I 
argue no good from this separation, which I have always hindei'ed, 
seeing too clearly the evil results. God grant that the road from 
Chikagoua to this strait '' (au Detroit) " be not closed, and the whole 
Illinois mission suffer greatly. I avow to you, Reverend Father, that 
it rends my heart* to see my old flock thus divided and dispersed, and 
I shall never see it, after leaving it, without having some new cause of 
affliction. The Peouaroua, whom I left without a missionai'y (since 
Father Marest has followed the Kaskaskias), have promised me that 
they would preserve the church, and that they would await my return 
from the Mississippi, where I told them I went only to assure myself 
of the truth of all that was said about it." * 

The area of the original countr}- of the Illinois was reduced by 
continuous wars with their neighbors. The Sioux forced them east- 
ward ; the Sac and Fox, and other enemies, encroached upon them 
from the north, while war parties of the foreign Iroquois, from the east, 
rapidly decimated their numbers. These unhappy influences were doing 

* Father Gravier's Journal in Shea's Early Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi, 
pp. 116 and 117. Dr. Shea, in a foot note, p. 116, says: "This designation (lUiiiois 
Du fMroit] does not appear elsewhere, and 1 cannot discover what strait is referred to. 
It evidently includes the Peorias." 

Dr. Shea's conjecture is very nearly correct. The narrows in Peoria lake retained 
the appellation of Little Detroit, a name handed down from the French-Canadians. 
Dr. Lewis Beck, in his "Gazetteer of Illinois and Missouri," p. 124, speaks of '"Little 
Detroit, an Indian village situated on the east bank of lake Peoria, six miles above 
Ft. Clark." On the map prefixed to the Gazetteer prepared in 1820 the contraction of 
the lake is shown and desii,ni;ited as " Little Detroit." 

We have seen from extracts from Father Marquette's Journal, quoted on a preced- 
ing page, that it was the Kaskaskias at whose village this distinguished missionary 
promised to return and to establish a mission, and that with tlie ebbing out of his life 
he fulfilled his engagement. From Father Gravier's Journal, just quoted, it is appar- 



(' 



ATTACK OF THE IROQUOIS. HI 

their fatal work, and the I llinois confederacy was in a stage of decline 
when they first c ame in c onta ct with the Fr ench. Their afflictions made 
them accessible to the voice of the missionary, and in their weakness 
they hailed with delight the coming of the Frenchman with his prom- 
ises of protection, which were assured by guns and powder. The mis- 
fortunes of the Illinois drew them so kindly to the priests, the coureurs 
des Bois and soldiers, that the friendship between the two races never 
abated ; and when in the order of events the sons of France had de- 
parted from the Illinois, their love for the departed Gaul was inculcated 
into tlie minds of their children. 

The erection of Fort St. Louis on t he Illinois, St. Joseph on the 
stream of that name, and the establishment at Detroit, for a while 
stayed the calamity that was to befall the I llinois. Frecjuent allusion 
has been made to the pail; the Iroquois took in the destruction of this 
powe rful conf ederacy. For the gratification of the reader we give a 
condensed account of some of these Iroquois campaig ns in the Illinois 
country. The extracts we take are from a memoir on the western 
Indians, by M. Du Chesneau,* dated at Quebec, September 13, 1681 : 
" To convey a correct idea of the present state of all those Indian na- 
tions it is necessary to explain the cause of the cruel war M-aged by the 
Iroquois for these th ree years past against the Illinois.") The former 
were great warriors, cannot renuiin idle, and pretend to subject all other 
nations to themselves, and never want a pretext for commencing hos- 
tilities. The following was their assumed excuse for the present war: 
Going, about twenty years ago, to attack the Outagamis (Foxes), 
they met the Ill inois and killed a considerable number of them. This 
continiied during the succeeding years, and finally, having destroyed a 
great many, they forced them to abandoii_tlieir country and seek refuge 
in v ery distan t parts. The Iroquois having got quit of the Illinois, 
took no more trouble with them, and went to war against another 
nation called the A ndostag ues.f Pending this war the Illinois re- 
tur ned to th eir country, and the Iroquois com plained that they had 

ent that the mission had for some years been in successful operation at the combined 
village of the Kaskaskias, Peorias and Mouin-gouena, situated at the Du Detroit of the 
Illinois ; and also that the Kaskaskias, hearing that the Fi-ench were about to form es- 
tablishments on the lower Mississippi, in company with the French inhabitants of their 
ancient village, were in the act of going down the iVlississippi at the time of Gravier's 
arrival, in September, 1700. All these facts taken together would seem to definitely 
locate the Mission of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the 
narrows, six miles above the present city of Peoria, which is upon the site of old Fort 
Clark, and proliably, from the topography of the locality, upon- the east bank of the 
strait. In conclusion, we may add that the Kaskaskias were induced to halt in their 
journey southward upon the river, which has ever since borne their name ; and the 
mission, transferred from the old Kaskaskias, above Peoria, retained the name of "The 
Immaculate Conception," etc. 

y* Paris Documents, vol. 9, pp. 161 to 166. 
>/ \ The Eries, or Cats, were entirely destroyed by the Iroquois. 



112 HISTOKIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

killed forty of their people who were on tlieir way to hunt beaver in 
the Illinois country. To obtain satisfaction, the Iroquois resolved to 
make war upon them. Their true motive, however, was to gratify the 
English at Manatte * and Orange, f of whom they are too near neigh- 
bors, and who, hy means of presents, engaged the Iroquois in this ex- 
pedition, the object of which was to force the Illinois to bring their 
beaver to them, so that they may go and trade it afterward to the 
English ; also, to intimidate the other Indians, and constrain them to 

' to do the same thing. 

" The improper conduct of Sieur de la Salle, :j; governor of Fort 
Frontenac, has contributed considerably to cause the latter to adopt 
this proceeding ; for after he had obtained permission to discover the 
Great River Mississippi, and had, as he alleged, the grant of the 
Illinois, he no longer observed any terms with the Iroquois. He ill- 
treated tliemj and avowed that he would convey arms and ammunition 

\to the Illinois, and would die assisting them. .^ 

"The Iroquois dispatched in the month of April of last year, 1680,^ 
an army, consisting of between five and six hundred men, who ap- \ 
proached an Illinois village where S ieur Tont y, one of Sieur de la ' 
Salle's men happened to be with some Frenchmen and two Recollect 
fathers, whom the Iroquois left unharmed. One of these, a most holy 
man,§ has since been killed by the Indians. But they would listen • 
to no terms of peace proposed to them by Sieur de Tonty, M'ho was 
slightly wounded at the beginning of the attack ; the Illinois having 
fled a hundred leagues thence, were pursued by the Iroquois, who / 
killed and captured as many as twelve hundred of them, including/ 
women and children, having lost only thirt}^ men. ^ 

" The victor}^ achieved by the Iroquois 2-endered them so insolent that 
they have continued ever since that time to send out divers war parties. 
The success of these is not yet known, but it is not doubted that they 
have been successful, because those tribes are very warlike and the Illi- 
nois are but indifferently so. Indeed, there is no doubt, and it is the 
universal opinion, that if the Iroquois are allowed to proceed they will 
subdue the Illinois, and in a short time render themselves masters of 
all the Outawa tribes and divert the trade to the English, so that it is 
absolutely essential to make them our friends or to destroy them.'" 

» * New York. 

y t Albany, New York. 

t It must be remembered that La Salle was not exempt from the jealousy and envy 
which is inspired in souls of little men toward those engag-ed in great undertakings ; 
and we see this spirit manifested here. La Salle could not have done otherwise than 
supply fire-arms to the Illinois, who were his friends and the owners of the country, the 
trade of which he had opened up at great hardship and expense to himself. 
§ Gabriel Ribourde. 



DEFEAT OF THE IKOQUOIS. 113 

The Iroquois were no t always s uccessful in tlieir western forays. 
Tr:i(lition records t wo instance s in which they were sadly discomlited. 
The lirst was an encounter with the Sioux, on an island in the Missis- 
sippi, at the mouth of the Des Moines. The tradition of this engage- 
ment is preserved in the curious volumes of L a Hon ta n, and is as fol- 
lows : "■ ^rar ch 2nd , 1689, 1 arrived in the Mississippi. To save the labor 
of rowing we left our boats to the current, and arrived on the tenth in 
the island of Rencontres, which took its name from the defeat of four 
hundred L'oquois accomplished there bj three hundred Xadouessis 
(Sioux). The story of the encounter is briefly this : A party of 
four hundred Iroquois having a mind to surprise a certain people in 
the neighborhood of the Otentas (of whom more anon), marched to 
the country of the Illinois, where they built canoes and were furnished 
with provisions. After that they embarked upon the river Mississippi, 
and were discovered by another little fleet that was sailing down the 
other side of the same river. The Iroquois crossed over immediately 
to that island wliich is since called Aux Rencontres. The Nadouessis, 
i. <?., the other little fleet, being suspicious of some ill design, without 
knowing what people they were (for they had no knowledge of the 
Iroquois but by hear-say) — upon this suspicion, I say, they tugged hard 
to come up with them. The two armies posted themselves upon the 
point of the island, where the two crosses are put down in the map,* 
and as soon as the Nadouessis came in sight, the Iroquois cried out in 
the Illinese language: ' W ho are yef To which the Nadouessis 
answered, ^ Somehody'^ and putting the same question to the Iroquois, 
received the same answer. Then the Iroquois put this question to 
'em; '■ Where are you going f ^ 'To hunt l)uftalo,' answered the A"a- 
douessis / ' but, i)ray,' says the Xadouessis, ' what is your business ? ' ' To 
hunt men,' reply'd the Iroquois. " 'Tis well,' says the Nadouessis; 
' we are men, and so you need go no farther.' I'pon this challenge, 
the two parties disembarked, and the leader of the Nadouessis cut his 
canoes to pieces, and, after representing to his warriors that the}' be- 
lioved either to conquer or die, marched up to the Iroquois, who 
received them at first onset witli a cloud of arrows. But the Nadou- 
essis having stood their flrst discharge, wliich killed eighty of them, 
fell in upon them with their clubs in their hands before the others 
could charge again, and so routed them entirely. This engagement 
lasted for two hours, and was so hot that two hundred and sixty Iro- 
quois fell upon the spot, and the rest were all taken prisoners. Some 
of the //v>y//c>/.s-, indeed, attempted to make their escape after the action 

* On La Hontan's map the place marked is designated by an island in the Missis- 
sippi, immediately at the mouth of the Des Moines. 



114 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE XOKTIIWEST. 

was over ; l)ut the victorious general sent ten or twelve of bis men to 
pursue them in one of the canoes that he had taken, and accordingly 
they were all overtaken and drowned. The Xadouessis having ob- 
tained this victory, cut off the noses and ears of two of the cleverest 
prisoners, and supplying them with fusees, powder and ball, gave them 
the liberty of returning to their own country, in order to tell their 
countrymen that they ought not to employ women to hunt after 7nen 
any longer.'"* 

The second tradition is that of a defeat of a war party of Irotpiois 
upon the banks of the stream that now bears the name of " Iroquois 
River.'''' Father Charlevoix, in his Narrative Journal, referring to his 
passage down the Kankakee, in September, 1721, a lludes to this defeat 
of the Iroquois in the following language : " I was not a little sur- 
prised at seeing so little ^tater in the The-a-ki-ki, notwithstanding it 
receives a good many pretty large rivers, one of which is more than a 
hundred and twenty feet in breadth at its mouth, and has been called 
the River of the Iroquois, because some of that nation were surprised 
on its banks by the Illinois who killed a great many of them. This 
check mortified them so much the more, as they held the Illinois in 
great contempt, who, indeed, for the most part are not able to stand 
before them.'' f 

The tradition has been given with fuller particulars to the author, 
by Colonel Guerdon S. Hubbard, as it was related by the Indians to 
him. It has not as yet appeared in print, and is valuable as well as 
interesting, inasmuch as it explains why the Iroquois River has been 
so called for a period of nearly two centuries, and also because it gives 
the origin of the name ^yatsel'a. 

The tradition is substantially as follows: Many years ago the Iro- 
quois attacked an Indian village situated on the banks of the river a 
few miles below the old county seat, — Middleport, — and drove out 
the occupants with great slaughter. The fugitives were collected in 
the night time some distance away, lamenting their disaster. A wo- 
man, possessing great courage, urged the men to return and attack the 
Iroquois, saying the latter w-ere then rioting in the spoils of the village 
and exulting over their victory ; that they would not expect danger 
from their defeated enemy, and that the darkness of the night would 
prevent their knowing the advance upon them. The warriors refused 
to go. The woman then said that she would raise a party of squaws 
and return to the village and fight the Iroquois ; adding that death or 
captivity would be the fate of the women and children on the morrow, 

*La Hontan's Now Voyages to America, vol. 1, pp. 138, 129. 
t Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, vol. 2, p. 199. 



INDIAN LEGEND. 115 

and that they might as well die in an effort to regain their village and 
property as to submit to a more dreadful late. She called for volun- 
teers and the women came forward in large numbers. Seeing the 
bravery of their wives and daughters the men were ashamed of their 
cowardice and became inspired with a desperate courage. A plan of 
attack was speedily formed and successfully executed. The Iroquois, 
taken en ti relj,^ una wares, were su rprised and utterly defeated. 

The name of the heroine who suggested and took an active part in 
this act of bold retaliation, bore the name of W atch-e-l:. ee. In honor 
of her bravery and to perpetuate the story of the engagement, a coun- 
cil of tlie tribe was convened which ordained that when Watcli-e-kee 
died her name should be bestowed upon the most accomplished maiden 
of the tribe, and in this way be handed down from one generation to 
another. By such means have the name and the tradition been pre- 
served. 

The last person who bore this name was the daughter of a Potta- 
watomie chief, with whose band Col. Plubbard was intimately associ- 
ated as a trader for many years. She was well known to many of the 
old settlers in Danville and upon the Kankakee. She was a person of 
great beauty, becoming modesty, and possessed of superior intelligence. 
She had great influence among her own people and was highly re- 
spected by the whites. She accompanied her tribe to the westM'ard of 
the Mississippi, on their removal from the state. The present county 
seat of Iroquois c ounty is named after her, and Col. Hubbard advises 
the author that Watseka, as tlie name is generally spelled, is incorrect, 
and that the orthography for its true pronunciation should be Watch-e- 
kee.* 

We resume the narration of the decline of the Illinois : La Salle's 
fortiflcation at Starved Rock gathered about it populous villages of 
Illinois, Shawnees, Weas, Piankeshavys and other kindred tribes, shown 
on Franquelin's map as the Colonic Du Sr. de la Salle.f The Iroquois 
were ba rred out of th e country of the Illinois tribes, and the latter 
enjoyed security from their old enemies. La Salle himself, speaking 
of his success in establishing a colony at the Rock, says : " There would 
be nothing to fear from the Iroquois when the nations of the south, 

*The Iroquois also boiv the name of Can-o-\va-ga, doubtless an Inriian name. It 
had another aboriginal name, MucabeUa t which was, probably, a French-Canadian cor- 
ruption of the Kickapoo word Mo-qua), signifying: a bear. Beck's Illinois and Mis- 
souri Gazetteer, p. 90. The joint commission appointed by the legislatures of Indiana 
and Illinois to run the boundary line between the two states, in their report in 1821, 
and upon their map deposited in the archives at Indianapolis, designate the Iroquois 
by the name of Pick-a-mink River. They also named Sugar Creek after Mr. McDon- 
ald, of Vincennes, Indiana, who conducted the surveys for the commi.ssion. 

fThis part of Franquelin's map appears in the well executed frontispiece of Park- 
insons Discovery of the Great West. 



llf) HISTORIC NOTES OJs THE NORTHWEST. 

strengtliened tlirougli their iDterconrse with the Frciicli, sliall stop 
their conquest, and jirevent tlieir heing ])0\vorful by cai'rying off a great 
niniil)er of their women and children, whicli they can easily do from 
the inferiority of the weapons of their enemies. As respects com- 
merce, that post will probahly increase our traffic still more than lias 
been done by the establishment of Fort Fi-ontenac, which was built 
with success for that purpose; for if the Illinois and their allies were 
to catch the beavers which the Ii'oquois now kill in the neighborhood 
in order to carry them to the English, the latter not being any longer 
able to get them from tlieir own colonies would be obliged to buy from 
us, to the great benefit of those who have the privilege of this traffic. 
These were the views which the Sieur de la Salle had in placing the 
settleuient where it is. The colony has alread}' felt its effects, as all 
our allies, who had fled after the departure of M. de Frontenac, have 
returned to their ancient dwellings, in consequence of the confidence 
caused by the fort, near which they have defeated a party of Iroquois, 
and have built four forts to protect themselves from hostile incursions. 
The Governor, M. de la Bai-re, and the intendant, M. de Muelles, have 
told Sieur de la Salle that they would write to Monseigneur to inform 
him of the importance of that fort in order to keep the Iroquois in 
check, and that M. de Sagny had proposed its establishment in 1078. 
Monsiegneur Colbert permitted Sieur de la Salle to build it, and 
granted it to him as a property." * 

The fort at Ze Roclier (the rock) was constructed on its summit in 
1G82, and enclosed with a palisade. It was subsequently granted to 
Tonti and Forest.f It was abandoned as a military post in the year 
1702; and when Charlevoix went down the Illinois in 1721 he passed 
the Rock, and said of it: "This is the point of a very high terrace 
stretching the space of two hundred paces, and bending or winding 
with the course of the tiver. This rock is steep on all sides, and at a 
distance one would take it for a fortress. Some remains of a palisado 
are still to be seen on it, the Illinois having formerly cast up an en- 
trenchment here, which might be easily repaired in case of any inter- 
ruption of the enemy.'':}: / 

The abandonment of Fort St. Louis in 1702 M-as followed soon after 
by a dispersion of the tribes and remnants of tribes that La Salle and 
Tonti had gathered about i t, except the straggling village of the 
Illinois. 

* Memoir of the Sieur de la Salle, reporting to Monseigneur de Seingelay the dis- 
coveries made by him under the order of His Majesty. Historical Collections of 
Louisiana, Part 1, p. 42. 

t Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 494. 

t Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, vol. 2, p. 200. 



DECLIN'E OF THE ILLINOIS. 117 

The Iroquois eaiiie no m ore'^ sub sequent to 1721, having war enough 
on their hands nearer liome ; but the Illinois were constantly harassed 
by other enemies ; the Sacs, Foxes, Kickapoos and Pottawatoniies. 
In 172 2 the ir villages at the Rock and on Peoria Lake were besieged 
by the Foxes, and a detachment of a liundred men under Chevalier de 
Artaguette and Sieur de Tisne were sent to tlieir assistance. Forty of 
these Freneli soldiers, with four hundred Indians, marched by land to 
Peoria Lake. However, before the reinforcements reached their des- 
tination they learned that the Foxes had retreated with a loss of more 
than a hundred and twenty of their men. "This success did not, 
however, prevent the Illinois, although they had only lost twenty men, 
with some women and children, from leaving the Rock and Pimiteony, 
where they were kept in constant alarm, and proceeding to unite with 
those of their brethren who had settl ed on the Mississippi ; this was a 
stroke of grace for most of them, the small number of missionaries 
preventing their supplying so many towns scattered far apart ; but on 
the other side, as there was nothing to check the raids of the Foxes 
along the Illinois River, communication between Louisiana and New 
France became muclwess practicable.''* 

The fatal dissolution of the Illinois still proceeded, and their 
ancient homes and hunting grounds were appropriated by the more 
vigorous Sacs, Foxes, Pottawatoniies and Kickapoos. The killing of 
Pontiac at Cahokia, whither he had retired after the failure of his 
etfort to rescue the country from the English, was laid upon the 
Illinois, a charge which, whether true or false, hastened the climax of 
their destruction. 

General Harrison stated that " the Illinois confederacy was com- 
posed of five tribes: the Kaskaskias, Cahokias, Peoriaus, Michiganians 
and the Temarois, speaking the jVI iami language, and no doubt 
branches of that nation. When I was lirst appointed Governor of the 
Indiana Territory (Ma}', 1800), these once powerful tribes were re- 
duced to about thirty warriors, of whom twenty-five were Kaskaskias, 
four Peorians, and a single Michiganian. There w^as an individual 
lately alive at St. Louis who saw the enumeration made of them by 
the Jesuits in 1745, making the number of their warriors four thou- 
sand. A furious war between them and the Sacs and Kickapoos 
reduced them to that miserable remnant which had taken refuge 
amongst the white people in the towns of Kaskaskia and St. Genieve."f 

* History of New France, vol. 6, p. 71. 

t Otficial letter of Gen. Harrison to Hon. John Armstrong, Secretary of War, 
dated at Cincinnati, March 22. 1814: contained in Captain M'Afee's " History of the 
Late War in the Western Country." 



118 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NOUTHWEST. 

By successive treaties their lands in Illinois were ceded to the 
United States, and they were removed west of the Missouri. In 1872 
they had dwindled to forty souls — men, women and children all told. 

Thus have wasted away the original occupants of the larger part of 
Illinois and portions of Iowa and Missouri. In 1684 their single vil- 
lage at La Salle's colony, could muster twelve hundred warriors. In the 
daj's of their strength they nearly exterminated the Winnebagoes, and 
their war parties penetrated the towns of the Iroquois in the valle3^s of 
^ the Mohawk and Genesee. They took the Metchig amis under their 
protection, giving them security against enemies with whom the latter 
could not contend. This people who had dominated over the surround- 
ing tribes, claiming for themselves the name Illini or Linneway, to rep- 
resent their superior manhood, have disappeared from the earth ; anotlier 
race, representing a higher civilization, occupy their ancient domains, 
and already, even the origin of their name and the location of their 
cities have become the subjects of speculation. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE MIAMIS — THE MIAMI, PIANKESHAW, AND WEA BANDS. 

The people known to us as the Miamis formerly dwelt beyond the 
Mississippi, and, according to their own traditions, came originally 
from the Pacific. '' If what I have heard asserted in several places be 
true, the Illinois and Miamis came from the banks of a very distant sea 
to the westward. It would seem that their first stand, after they made 
their first descent into this country, was at Moingoxa.'-^ At least it is 
certain that one of their tribes bears that name. The rest are known 
under the name of Peorias, Tamaroas, Caoqnias and Kaskaskias." 

The migration of the Miamis from the west of the Mississippi, 
eastward through Wisconsin and northern Illinois, iTound the south- 
ern end of Lake Michigan to Detroit, and thence up the Maumee and 
down the Wabash, and eastward through Indiana into Ohio as far as 
the Great Miami, can be follow-ed through the mass of records handed 
down to us from the missionaries, travelers and officers connected with 
the French. Speaking of the mixe d village of Ma skoutens, situated on 
Fox River, Wisconsin, at the time of his visit there in 1G70, Father 
Claude Dablon says the village of the Fire-nation "is joined in the 
circle of the same barriers to another people, named Oumia mi, which 
is one of the Illinois nations, which is, as it were, dismembered from 
the others, in order to dwell in these cj[uarters.t It is beyond this 
great river :{: that are placed thejllinois of whom we speak, and from 
whom are detached those who dwell here with the Fire-nation to form 
here a transplanted colony." 

From the quotations made there remains little doubt that the Mi- 
amis were origi nally a branch of the gr eat Illi nois nation . This theory 
is confirmed by writers of our own time, among whom we may men- 
tion General Wijliam I T. Ha rrison, whose long acquaintance and official 
connection with the several bands of the Miamis and Illinois gave him 

* Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, vol. 2, p. 227. Moingona. from undoubted 
authorities, was a name given to the Des Moine s Ri ver; and we find on the original 
map. drawn by Marquette, the village of the Moingona placed on the Des Moines 
above a village of the Peorias on the same stream. 

t Father IXal)lon is here describing the same village referred to by Father Mar- 
quette in that part of his .Journal which we have copied on page 44. 

tThe Mississippi, of which the missionary had been speaking in the paragraph 
preceding t hat which w e quote. 

119 



120 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

.the opportunities, of wliicli lie availed himself, to acquire an intimate 
knowled^c^ ctmcerning them. "Although the language, manners 
and customs of the Kaskaskias make it sufhciently certain that they 
derived their origin from the same source with tlic Miami s, the 
connection liad been dissolved before the French liad penetrated 
from Canada to the Mississippi. ""■'■ The assertion of General Har- 
rison that the tribal relation between the Illinois and Miamis had 
been_broken at the time of the discovery of the r[)])er ^fississippi 
valley bv the French is sustained with great unanimity by all other 
autliorities. In the long and disastrous wars waged upon the Illinois 
j by the Iroquois, Sacs and Foxes, Kickapoos and other eiiemies, we 
' have no instance given where the Miamis ever offered assistance to 
! tliejr ancient kinsmen. (l\fter the separation, on the contrary, they 
' often lifted the bloody hatchet against them^ 

■ Father Dablon, in the narrative from wliich we have (jUoted,t 
gives a detailed account of the civi lity o f the Miamis at Mas coute n, 
and the formality and court routine with which their great chief was 
surrounded. ''The chief of the Miamis, whose name was Tetin- 
choua, was surrounded by the most notable people of the village, 
who, assuming the r<Me o f courtiers , with civil posture full of defer- 
ence, and keeping always a respectful silence, magnified the great- 
ness of their king. The ehief and his routine gave Father Dablon 
every mark of their most distinguished esteem. The physiognomy 
of the chief was as mild and as attractive as any one could wish to 
see ; and while his reputation as a warrior was great, his features 
bore a softness which charmed all those who beheld him.'' 

Nicholas Perrot, with Sieur de St. Lussin, dispatclu'd by Talon, 
the intendant, to visit the westwarcl_ nations, with whom the French 
had intercourse, and invite them to a council to be held the follow- 
ing s})ring at the Sault Ste. Marie, was at this Miami village shortly 
after the visit of Dablon. Perrot was treated with great consider- 
ation by the Miamis. Tatinchoua '"sent (»ut a detachment to meet 
the French agent and receive him in niilitai-y style. The detach- 
ment advanced in battle array, all the braves adorned with feathers, 
armed at all points, were uttering war cries from time to tinu'. The 
Pottawatomies wdio escorted Perrot, seeing them come in this guise, 
prepared to receive them in the same manner, and Perrot put him- 
self at their head. AVhen the two troops were in face of each other, 
they sto])ped as if to take breath, then all at once Perrot took the 
right, the Miamis the left, all running in Indian rile, as though they 
wished to gain an advantage to charge. 

* Memoirs of" General Harrison, by Moses Dawson, p. 62. 
t Relations, 1670, 1671. 



OF THR NAME MIAMI. 121 

"But the Miamis wlieeling in the fonn of an arc. the Pottawat- 
omies were invested on all sides. Then both uttered loud yells, 
which were the signals for a kind of combat. The Miamis tired a 
volley from their guns, which were only loaded witli powder, and 
tlie Pottawatomies returned it in the same way; after this they 
closed, tomahawk in hand, all the blows being received on the tom- 
ahawks. P eace was then ma de ; the Miamis presented the calumet 
to Perrot, and led him with all his chief escort into the town, where 
the great chief assigned him a guard of iifty men, regaled him mag- 
nificently after the custom of the country, and gave him tlie diver- 
sion of a game of ball.""^* The Miami chief never spoke to his 
subjects, but imparted his orders through some of his officers. On 
account of his advanced age he was dissuaded from attending the 
council to be held at Ste. Marie, between the French and the Indians ; 
however, he deputized the Pottawatomies to act in his name. 

Th is conf ederacy called theniselves "Miamis," and by this name 
were known to the surrounding tribes. The name was not b estowed 
upon them by the French, as some have assumed from its resem- 
blance to Mon-mni^ because they were the friends of the latter. 
When Heripepin was captured on the Mississippi by a war party of 
the Sioux, these savages, with their painted faces rendered more 
hideous by the devilish contortions of their features, cried out in 
angry voices, " ^Mia-hama ! 3lia-hama ! ^ and we made signs with 
our oars upon the sand, that the Miamis, their enemies, of wh()ni 
they were in search, had 2)assed the river upon their flight to join 
the Illinoit>.'H 

"The confederacy which obtained the general appellation of 
Miamis, from the superior numbers of the individual tribe to whom 
that name more properly belonged," were subdivided into three 
principal tribes or bandj, njimely, the Miamis proper, Weas and 
Piankeshaws. French writers have given names to two or three 
other subdivisions or femilies of the three jjrincipal bands, whose 
identity has nev er been clearly traced, and who figure so little in 
the accounts which we have of the Miamis, that it is not necessary 
here to specify their obsolete names. The different ways of writing 

* History of New France, vol. 3, pp. 166, 167. Father Charlevoix improperly 

locates this villajje, where Perrot was received, at " Chicag'O, at the lower end of Lake 

^Iichipran, wli^re the Miamis then were," page 166, above quoted. The Miamis were 

/no^tlii'ii at < hicatj-Q. The reception of Perrot was at the mixed village on i'ox Hiyer, 

vVisconsin, as stated in the text. The error of Charlevoix, as to the location of this 

village, has been pointed out by Dr. Shea, in a note on page 166, in the "Hi.story of 

New France," and also by Francis Parknian, in a note on page 40 of his " Discovery 

of the Great West." 

t Hennepin, p. 187. 



122 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

Miamis are: Oumianiwek,''^ Oumaniis,f Mauinees,:}: Au-Miami § 
(contracted to Au■^^i and Omee) and Mine-ami. j| 

The French calU'd the Weas Ouiaten ons, Syatanons, Ouyatanons 
and Ouias ; the English and Colonial traders spelled the word, 
Ouicatanon,*j "Way-ongh-ta nies,*""' Wawiachtens,+t and Wehahs.:{::|: 

For the Piankeshaws, or Pou-an-ke-ki-as^ as they were called irT 
the earliest accounts, we have Peanguichias, Piangui-shaws, Pyan- 
ke-shas and Pianqnishas. / 

j The Miami tribes w^ere known to the Trcxjuois, or Five Nations 
I of New York, as the Twight-wees^ a name generally adopted by the 
! Br itish, as well as by the American colonists. Of this name there 
are various corruptions in pronunciation and spelling, examples of 
whicli we have in ''Twich-twichs," " Twick-twicks, " " Twis-t wicks," 
''Twio^h-twees,'' and "Twick-tovies." The insertion of these manv 
names. ai)pl ied to one pe ople, would seem a tedious superfluity, were 
it otherwise possible to retain the identity of the tribes to which 
these different appellations have been given by the French, British 
and American officers, traders and writers. It wdll save the reader 
much perplexity in pursuing a history of the Miamis if it is borne in 
mind that all these several names refer to the Miami nation or to 
one or the other of its respective bands. 

Besides the colony mentioned by Dablon and Charlevoix, on the 
Fox Piver of Wisconsin, Hennepin informs us of a village of 
Miamis south and west of jPeona Lake at the time he was at the 
latter place in 1679, and it was probably this village whose inhabit- 
ants the Sioux were seeking. St. Cosmie, in 1699, mentions the 
"village of the ' Peanzichias-Miamis, who formerly dwelt on the 

of the Mississippi, and who had come some years previous 

and settled ' on the Illinois Piver, a few miles below the confluence 
of the Des Plaines." ^§ 

The Miamis were within the territory of La Salle's colony, of 
which Starved Pock was the center, and counted thirteen hundred 
warriors. The Weas and Piankeshaws were also there, the former 
having five^ hundred wari'iors and the Piankeshaw band one hundred 
and fifty. This was ])rior to 1687. |||| At a later day the Weas "were 
at Chicago, but being afraid of the canoe people, left it."**^ Sieur 
de Courtmanche, sent westward ^n 1701 to negotiate with the tribes 
in tliat_part of New France, vfslk at '■ ^ Chi cago, wdiere he found some 

* Marquette. fLaHontan. :}: Gen. Harrison. § Gen. Harmar. | Lewis Evans. 
IT Georg-e Croghan's Narrative Journal. ** Croghan's List of Indian Tribes. 
;tt John Heckwelder, a Moravian Missionary. }]: *-'atlin's Indian Tribes. 

SS St. Cosmie's Journal in " Early Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi," p. 58. 
Ill Parkman's Discovery of the Great West, note on p. 290. 
^[•[Memoir on the Indian tribes, prepared in 1718: Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 890. 



A 



AT WAR WITH THE SIOUX. 123 

Weas (Ouiatanons), a Miam i tribe, who had sung the war-song 
against the ! Sioux and the Iroquois. He obliged them to lay down 
their arms and extorted from them a promise to send deputies to 
Montreal."'" 

In a letter dated in 1T21, p ublished in his "Narrative Journal," 
Father Charlevoix, speaking of the Mianiis about the head of Lake 
Michiga n, says: " Fifty years ago the Miamis were settled on the 
southern extremity of Lake Michigan, in a place called Ohicagou, 
from the name of a small river which runs into the lake, the source 
of whicli is not far distant from that of the river of the Illinois; 
they are at present divided into three villages, one of which stands 
on the river St. Jo seph, the second on another river which bears 
th eir na me and runs into Lake Erie, and the third upon the river 
O uabach e, which empties Tts^vaters into the Mississippi. These last 
are better known by the appellation of Ouyatanons. " f 

In 1694, Count Frontenac, in a conference with the Western In- 
dians, requested the Miainis of the Pepikokia band who resided on 
the Maramek,:}; to remove, and join the tribe which was located on 
the Saint Josephj^qf Lake Michigan. The reason for this request, 
as stated by Frontenac himself, was, that he wished the different 
bands of the Miami confederacy to unite, "so as to be able to exe- 
cute with greater facility the commands which he might issue." At 
that time the Iroq uois were at w ar with Canada, and the French 
were endeavoring to persuade the western tribes to take up the tom- 
ahawk in their behalf. The Miamis promised to observe the Gov- 
ernor's wishes and began to make preparations for the removal. § 

" Late in August, 1G96, they started to join their brethren settled 
on the St. Joseph. On their way they were attacked by the Sioux, 
who killed several. The Miamis of the St. Joseph, learning this 
hostility, resolved to avenge their slaughter. They pursued the 
Sioux to their own country, and found them entrenched in their fort 
with some Frenchmen of the class known as coureurs des bois (bush- 
lope rsV They nevertheless attacked them repeatedly with great res- 
olution, but were repulsed, and at last comp elled to retire, after 
losing several of their braves. On their way home, meeting other 
Frenchmen carrying arms and ammunition to the Sioux, they seized 
all they had, but did them no harm." • 

The Miamis were very much enrage d at the Fren ch for supplying 

J^History of New France, vol. 5, p. 142. 
n/T Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, vol. 1, p. 287. 

± The Kalamazoo, of Michigan. 
yS Paris Documents, vol. 9. pp. 624, 635. 
v/ 1 Charlevoix" History of New Fi-auce, vol. 5, p. 65. 



124 HISTORIC NOTKS ON' THK NORTHWEST. 

their enemies, tlie Sionx, witli guns and aniiuunition. It took all 

the address of Count Frontenac to ])revent them from joining the 

v^ Ircxjuois : iiKU-cd. tliry seized u])on tlie French agent and trader, 

Xichi)las Pcn-ot, wlio liad been coiuiiiissioued to lead the Maramek 

* band to the St. .losephs, and would have burnt liini alive had it not 
been for tlie Foxes, who intei-posed in his behalf" This was the 
comnu'iiccnu'iit of the bitter feeling of hostilit\' with which, from 
that time, a ] )art of the Miamis always regarded the French. From 
this period the movements of the tribe were observed by the French 
with jealous sus[)icion. ^ 

We have already shown that in 1699 the Miamis were at Fort 
Wayne, engaged in transferring across their portage emigrants from 
Canada to liOiiisiana, and that, within a few years after, the Weas 
are described as having their fort and several miles of cultivated 
"fields on the Wea plains below La Fayette. f From the extent and 
charactei- of these iiii])rovements, it may be safelj'^ assumed that the 
Weas had been established here some years prior to 1718, the date 
of the Memoir. 

"When the French first discovered the Waba sh, the Piankeshaws 
were found in possession of the laiul on either side of that stream, 
from its mouth to the Vermilion liiv€i\ and n() claim had ever 
been nuide to it by any other tribe nntil ISO-l, the period of a ces- 
sion of a part of it to the United States by the Delawares, who had 
obtain(Ml their title from the Piankeshaws themselves, i 

I AVe liave already seen that at the time of the nrst accMDunt we 

have i-elating to the Maumee and the Wabash, the Miamis had vil- 
lages and extensive improvements near Fort Wayne, on the Wea 
prairie- below La Fayette, on the Vermilion of the Wabash, and at 
Y incenne s. At a later day they established villages at other places, 
viz, near the forks of the Wabash at Huntington, on the Mississin- 
ewa,sj on Eel Piver near Logansport, while near the source of this 
river, and westward of Fort Wayne, was the village of the ''Little 
Turtle." Xear the mouth of the Tippecanoe was a sixth village. 

* Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 072. 

^Vhk\ p. 104. 
v'^tMenioirs of General Harrison, pp. 61, 63. ^ 

■/§This stream empties into the Wabash near Pern, and on the opposite side of the 
river from that city. The word is a compound oi un>^v>< great, and ass in, stone, signify- 
ing the river of the great or much stone. "The Mississinewii, with its piHared rocks, 
is full of geological as well as romantic interest. Some throe miles from Peru the 
channel is cut through a solid wall of cherty silico-magnesian limestone. The action 
of the river and unequal disintegration of the rocks has carved the precipitous wall, 
which converts the river's course into a system of pillars, rounded buttresses, alcoves, 
chambers and overhanging sides." Prof. Cojlett's Report on the Geology of .Miami 
county, Indiana. 



A WARLIKE PEOPLE. 125 

Passing below the Yermilion , the Miamis liad other villages, one 
on Sugar creek"" and another near Terre Haute, f 

The country of the Miamis extended west to the watershed be- 
tween the Illinois and AVabash rivers, which separated their posses- 
sions from those of their brethren, the Illinois. On the north were 
the Pottawatomies. who were slowly but steadily pushing their lines 
southwai'd into tlie territory of the Miamis. The superior numbers 
of the Miamis and their great valor enabled them to extend the 
limit of their hunting grounds eastward into Ohio, and far within 
the territory claimed by the Iroquois. " Thej were the undoubted 
proprietors of all that beautiful country watered by the Wabash and 
its tributaries, and there remains as little doubt that their claim ex- 
tended as far east as the Scioto.'':!: 

Unlike the Illinois, the Miamis held their own until they were 
placed upon an equal footing with the tribes eastward by obtaining 
possession of lire-arms. With these implements of civilized warfare 
they were able to maintain the ir tribal integrity and the independ- 
eiice they cherished. They were not to be control UmI by the French, 
iior_did__they_suffer enemies from an y quar ter to impose upon Ihem 
without in'ompt j*etaliation. They traded and fought with the 
French, English and Americans as their interests or passions in- 
clined. They made peace or declared war against other nations of 
their own race as p olicy or caprice dictated. More than once they 
compelled even the arrogant Iroquois to beg from the governors of 
the American colonies that protection which they themselves had 
failed to secure bj^ their own prowess. Bold, independent and 
fl ushed w ith success, the Miamis afforded a poor field for missionary 
work, an d th e Jesuit Pelations and pastoral letters of tiie French 
priesthood have less to say of the Miami confederacy than any of the 
other weste rn tribes, the Kickapoos alone excepted. 

The country of the_Miamis was accessible, by way of the lakes, 
to the fur trader of Canada, and from the eastward, to the adven- 
turers engaged in the Indian trade from Pennsylvania, Xew York 
and Virginia, either by way of the Ohio Piver or a commerce car- 
ried on overland by means of pack-horses^ The English and the 
French alike coveted their peltries and sought their ])o werful a lii- 



^ 



This stream was at one time called Rocky River, vide Brown's Western Gazet- 
teer. By the Wea Miamis it was called Pim-go-se-coii-e, "Sugar tree" (creek), vide 
statement of Mary Ann Baptiste to the author. 

fThe villages below the Vermilion and above Yincennes figure on some of the early 
En glish map s and in accounts given by traders as tjiej^owej- or little Wea towns. Be- 
sides these, which were the pr incipal o nes, the Mianns had a village at Thorn town^ 
and many others of lesser note on the \A'abash and its tributaries. 

I Official Letter of General Harrison to the Secretary of War, before quoted. 

w 



126 HISTORIC NOTKS ON THE NORTHWEST. 

ance, therefore the Miainis were harassed with the jeah^usies and 
diplomacy of both, and if they or a part of their several tribes be- 
came inveigled into an alliance with the one, it involved the host ility 
of the other. The French government sought to use them to clu'ck 
the westward advance of the British colonial influence, while the 
latter de:sire(l their assistance to curb the French, whose ambitious 
/ schemes inxolvcd nothing less than the exclusive subjugation of 
the entire continent westward of the Alleghanies. In these wars 
between the English and the French the Miamis were constantly 
reduced in numbers, a nd whatever might have been the I'esult to 
either of the former, it only ended in disaster to themselves. Some- 
times they divided ; again they were enti rely devot ed to the interest 
of the En glish a nd Iroquois. Then they j oined the French against 
the British and Iroquois, and when_the British ultimately obtained 
the mastery and secured the valley of the Mississippi, — the long 
sought for prize, — the Miamis entered the confederacy of Pontiac 
to drive them out of the country. They fought with the British, 
— except the Piankeshaw band, — against the colonies during the 
revolutionary war. After its close their young men were largely 
occupied in the predatory_wai'fare waged by the several Maumee 
and Wabash tribes upon the frontier settlements of Ohio, Pennsyl- 
vania, Virginia and Kentucky. They likewise entered the con- 
fede racy of Tec umseh, and, either openly or in secret sympathy, 
they were the allies of the British in the war of 1812. Their history 
occupies a conspicuous place in the iiiilitary annals of the west, 
extending over a period of a century, during which time they main- 
tained a manly struggle to retain p ossessi on of their homes J.n the 
valleys- of the Wabash and Maumee. 

The disadvantage under which the Miamis labored, in encounters 
with their enemies, before they obtai ned fire-ar ms, was often over- 
come by the exercise of their cunning and bravery. "In the year 
1680 the Miamis and Illinois were hunting on the St. Joseph River. 
A party of four hundred Iroquois surprised them and killed thirty 
or forty of their hunters and captured three hundred of their women 
and children. After the victors had rested awhile they prepared to 
return to their homes by easy journeys, as they had reason to believe 
that they could reach their own villages before the defeated enemy 
would have time to rally and give notice of their disaster to those of 
their nation who were hunting in remoter places. But they were 
deceived ; for the Illinois and Miamis rallied to the nundjer of tw^o 
hundred, and resolved to die fighting rather than suff'er their women 
and cliildreiLto_be carried awav. In the meantime, because they 



/ DEFEAT OF THE IROQUOIS. 127 

were not e<ju;il to tlicir enemies in equipment of arms or numbers, 
they contrived a notable strata^'em. 

After the Miamis had duly considered in what way they would at- 
tack the Iroquois, they decided to follow them, keeping a small dis- 
tance in the rear, until it should rain. The heavens seemed to favor 
tlieir plan, for, after awhile it began to rain, and rained continually 
the whole day from morning until night. "When the rain began to 
fiill the Miamis quickened tlieir march and passed by the Iroquois, 
and took a position two leagues in advance, where they lay in an am- 
buscade, hidden by the tall grass, in the middle of a prairie, which 
the Iroquois had to cross in order to reach the woods beyond, where 
they designed to kindle fires and encamp for the night. The Illi- 
nois and Miamis, lying at full length in the grass on either side of 
the trail, waited until the Iroquois were in their midst, when they 
shot off their arrows, and then attacked vigorously with theii- clubs. 
The Iroquois endeavored to use their fire-arms, but finding them of 
no service because the r ain ha d dampened and spoiled the priming, 
threw them upon the ground, and undertook to defend themselves 
with th,eir clubs. In the use of the latter weapon the Iroquois were 
no match for their more dexte rous and nimble enemies. They were 
forced to yield the contest, and retreated, fighting until night came 
on. They hjst one hundred and eighty of their warriors. 

The fight lasted about an hour, and would have continued through 
the night, were it not that the Mia mis an d Illinois feared that their 
women and children (left in the rear and bound) would be exposed 
to some surprise in the dark. The victors rejoined their women and 
childi-en, and possessed themselves of the fire-arms of tlieir enemies. 
The Miamis and Illinois then returned to their own country, without 
taking one Iroquois for fear of weakening themselves. ''■" 

Failing in their first efforts to withdraw the Miamis from the 
French, and secure their fur t rade to the merchants at Albany and 
New York, the English sent their allies, t he Iroquois, against t hem. 
A series of encounters between the ' two tribes was the result, in 

/ * This account is taken from La Hontan, vol. 2, pp. 63, 64 and 65. The facts con- 
cerning the engagement, as given by La Hontan, may be relied upon as substantially 
correct, for they were written only a few years after the event. La Hontan, as appears 
from the date of his letters which comprise the principal part of his volumes, was in 
this country from November, 16 83, to 1689, and it was during this time that he was 
collecting the information contained in his w orks. The place where this engagement 
between the ]\riamis and Illino is a gains t the Iroquois occurred, is a matter of doubt . 
Some late commentators claim tTiat it was upon the ]\raumee. La Hontan says that 
the engagement was "near the river Oiniunnis.'" "When lie wrote, the St. Joseph of 
Lake Michigan was called the river Oumamis. and on the map accompanying La Hon- 
tan's volume it is so-called, while the Maumee, though laid down on the map, is 
designated by no name whatever. It would, therefore, appear that when La Hontan 
mentioned the Miami Kiv^r he referred to the St. Joseph. 



128 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

wliicli tlie blood of both vyas profusely slicd, to furtlu'r tlic purposes 
of a piu'ulj coninicrcial transaction. 

In these engagements the Senecas — -a tribe of the Tr<t(|uois, or 
Five Nations, residing to the west of the other tribes of the confed- 
eracy, and, in consecpience, being nearest to the Mianiis, and more 
directly exposed to theii- fury — were nearly destroyed at the out- 
set. The Miamis followed up their success and drove the Senecas 
behind the palisades that inclosed their villages. For three years 
the war was carried on with a bitterness only known to exasperated 
savages. 

Wh en a t last the Iroquois saw they could no longer de fend them- 
selves against the Miamis, they appeared in council before the Gov- 
ernor of Xew York, and, pittvingly, claimed protection from him, 
who, to say the least, had remained silent and permitted his own 
people to })reci2iit_ate this calamity upon them. 

"You say you will support us against all your kings aiul our 
enemies; we will then forbear keeping any more correspomlence 
with the French of Canada if the great King of England will de- 
feiul our people from the TwicJdtvicJiS and other nations over whom 
the French have an influence and have encouraged to destroy an 
abundance of our peojjle, even since tJte peace hetiveen the two crowns,'''' 
etc."^ 

The governor declined sending troops to protect the Iroquois 
against their enemies, but informed them: "You must be sensible 
that the Dowaganhaes, Twichtwicks, etc., and other remote Lidians, 
are vastly more numerous than you Five Nations, and that, by their 
[continued warring upon you, they will, in a few years, totally de- 
Istroy you. I should, therefore, think it prudence and good policy in 
you to try all possible means to fix a trade and correspondence with 
all those nations, by which means yov Avoul d i-e concile them to your- 
selves, and with my assistance, I am in ho})es that, in a short time, 
they might be united with us in the covenant chain, and then you 
might, at all times, without hazard, go hunting into their counti'v, 
which, I understand, is much the best for beaver. I wisli you would 
try to bring some of them to speak to me, and jierliaps I might i)re- 
vail upon them to come and live amongst you. I should think my- 
self obliged to reward you for such a piece of service as I tender 
your good advantage, and will always use my best endeavor to pre- 
serve you from all your enemies.'"' 

* Speech of an Iroquois chief at a conference held at Albany, August 26. 1700, be- 
tween Richard, Earl of IJclniont, Captain-Oeneral and Governor-in-Chief of His Maj- 
esty's provinces of New York, etc., and the sachems of the Five Nations. New York 
Colonial Documents, vol. 4, p. 729. 



TRADE WITH THK ENGLISH. 129 

The conference continued several (lays, during which the Iromiois 
stated tlieir grievances in num erous spe eches, to which the governor 
graciously replied, using vague terms and making no promises, 
after the manner of the extract from his speech above quoted, but 
jilaced great stres s on the value of the fur trade to the English, and 
enjoining his brot hers, the Ircxjuois. to bring all tlieir peltries to 
Albany; to maintain their old alliance with the English, offensive 
and defensive, and have no interco urse wha tever, of a friendly na- 
ture, with the rascally French of Canada. 

The Iroquois declined to fpllow _the_ adv^i^ie of the governor, 
deeming it of lit tle credit to th eir courage to sue for peace. In the 
meantime the governor sent emissaries out among the Mianiis, with 
an invitation to open a trade with the English. The messengers were 
captured by the commandant at Detroit, and sent, as prisoners, to 
Canada. However, the Miamis, in July, 1702, sent, through the 
sachems of the Five JNTations, a message to the governor at Albany, 
advising him that many of the Miamis, with another nation, had 
re moved to, and were then living at, Tjughsaghrondie,* near by the 
fort which the French had built the jliieyious summer ; that they had 
been informed that one of their chiefs, who had visited Albany two 
years before, had been kindly treated, and that they had now come 
forward to inquire into the trade of Albany, and see if goods could 
not be purchased there cheaper than elsewhere, and that they had 
intended to go to Ca nada with their beaver and peltries, but that 
they venture d to Alb any to inquire if goods could not be secured on 
bet ter te rms. The governor replied that he was extremely pleased 
to speak wi\h the Miamis about th e estab lishment of a lasting friend- 
ship and trade, and in token of his sincere intentions presented his 
guests with guns^ po wder, hats, st rouds, tobjicco gmj^pipes, and sent 
v4o their brethren at Detroit, waumpum, pipes, shells, nose and ear 
jewels, looking-glasses, fons, children's toys, and such otht^r light 
articles as his guests could conveniently carry ; and, finally, assured 
them that the Miamis might come fr eely to Albany, where they 
would be treated kindly, and receive, in ex change for their peltries, 
everythi ng as cheap as any other Indians in covenant of friendship 
with the English, t 

During the same year (1702) the Mianiis and Senecas settled their 
quarrels, exchanged prisoners, and established a peace between 
themselves. :{; 

* The Iroquois name for the Straits of Detroit. 

t Proceedings of a conference between the parties mentioned above. New York 
Colonial Documents, vol. 4, pp. 979 to 981. 

t New York Colonial Documents, vol. 4, p. 989. 
9 



130 HISTORIC NOTES OX THE NOKTHWEST. 

The French wei'e not disposed to alhnv u portion ot the fur trade 
to be diverted to Albany. Peaceable means were first used to dis- 
suade the Mianiis from trading with the English ; failing in this, 
/forcible means were resorted to. Captain Antoine De La Mothe 
. Cadillac marched against the Miamis and reduced them to terms.'" 

The Miamis were jiot unanimous in the choice of the ir friends. 
Some adhered to the French, while others were strongly inclined to 
trade with the English, (jf whom they could obtain a better quality 
of goods at cheaper rates, while at the same time they were allowed 
a greater j)rice for their furs. Cadillac had hardly elfected a coercive 
peace with the Miamis before the latter were again at Albany. "I 
have," writes Lord Cournbury to the Board of Trade, in a letter 
dated August 20, 1708,t '•'been there live years endeavoring to get 
these nations [referring to the Miamis and another nation] to trade 
with our people, but the French have always dissuaded them from 
coming until this year, when, goods being very scarce, they came to 
Albany, where our people have supplied them with goods much 
cheaper than ever the French did, and they promise to return in the 
spring with a much greater number of their nations, which would be 
a very great advantage to this province. I did, in a letter of the 
V 25th day of June last, inform your Lordships that three French 
soldiers, having deserted from the French at a place they call Le 
Destroit, came to Albany. Another deserter came from the same 
place, whom I examined myself, and I inclose a copy of his exam- 
ination, by which your Lordships will perceive how easily the French 
'may he heaten-out of Canada. The better I am acquainted with this 
country, and the more I inquire into matters, so much the more I 
am confirmed in my opinion of the facility of effecting that conquest, 
and b^tlie method I then proposed."" 

Turning to French documents we iind that Sieur de Callier de- 
sired the Miamis to withdraw from their sev eral widely separated 
villages and settle in a body upon the St. Josep^h. At a great council 
of the westward tribes, held" in Montreal in 1694, the French Li- 
tendant, in a speech to the Miamis, declares' that ''he will not believe 
that the Miamis wish to obey him until they make altogether one 
and the same fire, either at the River St. Joseph or at some other 
place adjoining it. He tells them that he has got near the Iroquois, 
and has soldiers at Katarakoui,:}: in the fort that had been abandoned ; 
that the Miamis must get near the enemy, in order to imitate him 

* Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. G71: note of the editor. 
t New York Colonial Documents, vol. 5, p. 65. 
X At Fort Frontenac. 



URGED TO UNITE AT ONE PLACE. 1:31 

(the Intendant), and be able to strike the Irocjuois tlie mo re readily. 
My cliildreiu" foiitimu'd the Inteudunt, ''toll iiic that the Miamis 
are nuinerous, and able of themselves to destroy jjie Iro(|uois. Like 
them, all are afraid. What! do you wish to abandon jour country 
to your enemy? . . . Have you forgotten that I waged war against 
him. })rincipally on your account, alone? Your dead are no longer 
visible in his country ; their bodies are covered by those of the 
French wlio liave perished to avenge them. I furnished you the 
means to avenge them, likewise. It depeiids only on me to receive 
tlie Iroq uois as a fr iend, which I will not d o on account of you, who 
would be destroyed were I to make peace vtdthout including you in 
its terms. ''' '''" 

"I have heard," writes Governor Vaudreuil, in a letter dated 
the 28th of October, 1719, to the Coiincil of Marine at Paris, "that 
the Miamis had resolved to remain where thej^ were, and not go 
to th e St. Joseph River, and that this resolution of theirs was dan- 
gerous, on account of the facility they would have of communicating 
with the English, who were incessantly distributing belts secretly 
among^ the nations, to attract them to themselves, and that Sieur 
Dubinson had been designed to command the post of Ouaytanons^ 
where he should use his influence among the Miamis to induce them 
to go to the Itiver St. Joseph, and in case they were not willing, 
that he should remain with them, to counteract the effect of those 
belts, which had already caused eight or ten Miam i canoe s to go that 
year to trade at Albany, and which might finally induce all of the 
Mia mi nation to follow the example. ''f Finally, some twenty-five 

ears later, as we learn from the letter of M. de Beauharnois, that 
this French ofiicer, having learned that the English had established 
tradi ng magazine s on the Ohio, issued his orders to the command- 
ants among the W eas and Miamis , to drive the British off by force 
of ar ms and pl under their stores.:}; 

Other extracts might be drawn from the voluminous reports of 
the m ilitary and civil officers o f the French and British colonial 
governments respectively, to the same purport as those already 

noted ; but enough has been given to illustrate the unfortunate 
position of the Miamis. For a period of half a century they were 
placed between the cutting edges of English and French pur- 
poses, during which there was no time when they were not threat- 
ened with danger of, or engaged in, actual war either with the 
P'rench or the English, or with some of their several Indian allies. 

* Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 625. f Ibid, p. 894. I Ibid, p. 1105. 



A 



V-V2 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NOKTIIWKST. 

By tliis continual abrasion, tlic jtoacr and liajtjiint'ss which should 
have been theirs was wholly lost, and their numbers constantly 
reduced. They luid no relief from the strife, in which only injury 
could result to themselves, let the issue luive been what it mi«i:ht 
between the English and the French, until the power of the latter 
was finally destroyed iu 1703 ; and even then, after the French had 
given up the country, the Mianiis were compelled to defend their 
"^ own title to it against the arrogant claims of the English. In the 
eifort of the combined westward tribes to wrest their country from 
the English, subsequent to the close of the colonial war, the Mianiis 
took a conspicuous part. This will be noticed in a subsequent chap- 
ter. After the conclusion of the revolutionary war, the several 
Miami villages from the Vermilion River to Fort Wayne suftered 
severely from the attacks of the federal government under General 
Harmer, and the military expeditions i-ecruited in Kentucky, and 
commanded by Colonels Scott and Wilkinson. Besides these dis- 
asters, whole villages were nearly depopulated by the ravages of 
small-pox. The uncontrollable thirst for whisky, acquired, through 
a long course of years, by contact with unscrupulous traders, reduced 
their numbers still more, while it degraded them to the last degree. 
This was their condition in 1/814, when General Harrison said of 
them: "The Mianiis will not be in our way. They are a poor, 
miserable, drunken set, diminishing every year. Becoming too lazy 
to hunt, they feel the advantage of their annuities. The fear of the 
other Indians has alone prevented them from selling their whole 
claim to the United States ; and as soon as there is peace, or when 
the Bi'itish can 11.0 longer intrigue, they will sell."* The same 
authority, in his historical address at Cincinnati in 1838, on the 
aborigines of the Valley of the Ohio, says: "At any time before 
the treaty of Greenville in 1795 the Miamis alone could have fur- 
nished more than three thousand warriors. Constant war with our 
frontier had deprived them of many of their braves, but the ravages 
of small-pox was the principal cause of the great decrease in their 
numbers. They composed, however, a body of the Jinest light 
ti'oops in the world. And had they been under an efficient system of 
discipline, or possessed enterprise equal to their valor, the settle- 
ment of the country would have been attended with much greater 
difficulty than was encountered in accomplishing it, and their final 
subjugation would have been delayed for some years." + 

Yet their decline, from causes assigned, was so rapid, that when 

, * Official letter of General Harrison to the Secretary of War, of date March 24, 1814. 
s/ fP- 39 of General Harrison's address, original pamphlet edition. 



CESSION OF THEIR LANDS. 133 

tlie Baptist iiiissionarv, Isaac McCoy, was among tlieiri from 1817 
until 1822, and drawing conclusions from personal contact, declared 
that the Miamis were not a warlike people. There is, perhaps, in 
the history of the Xorth American Indians, no instance parallel to 
the utter demoralization of the Miamis, nor an example of a tribe 
which stood so high^ and had fallen so l ow through the practice of 
all the vices wh ich degrade human beings. Mr. McCoy, within the 
period named, traveled up and down the Wabash , from Terre Haute 
to Fort Wayne ; and at the villages near Montezuma, on Eel River, 
at the Mississinewa and Fort Wayne, there were continuous rounds 
of drunken debauchery whenever whisky could be obtained, of which 
men, women and children all partook, and life was often sacrificed 
in personal broils or by exposure of the debauchees to the inclemency 
of the weather.* 

By treaties, entered into at various times, from 1795 to 1845 , in- 
clusive, the Miamis ceded their lands in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, 
and rem oved w est of the Mississippi, going in village s or by detach- 
ments, from time to time. At a single cession in 1838 they sold 
the government 177,000 acres of land in Indiana, which was only a 
fragment of their former possessions, still retaining a l arge tract. 
Thus they alienated their heritage, and gradually disappeared from 
the valleys of the Maumee and W'^^'^^^^- ^^ ^'^'^^' remained on theiij 
reservations and ad apted themselves to the ways of the white peo-j 
pie, and their descendants may be occasionally met with about Peru,! 
Wiibash and Fo rt W ayne. The money received from sales of their 
lands proved to them a cala mity, ra ther than a blessing, as it intro- 
duced the most demoralizing habits. It is estimated that within a 
period of eigh teen years subsequent to the close of the war of 1812 
more than five hundred of them perished i n drunken br oils and fights, f 

The last of the Miamis to go westward were the^ Mississinewa 
band. This remnant, comprising in all th ree hundr ed and fifty per - 
sons, under charge of Christmas Dagney,:J: left their old home in the 

* Mr. McCoy has contributed a valuable fund of original information in his History 
of Baptist Indian MissionsY published in 1840. The volume contains six hundred and 
^eleven pages. He mentions many instances of drunken orgies which he witnessed in 
the several Miami towns. We quote one of them: '"An intoxicated Indian at Fort 
Wayne dismounted from his horse and ran up to a young Indian woman who was his 
sister-in-law, with a knife in his hand. She first ran around one of the company pres- 
ent, and then another, to avoid the murderer, but in vain. He stabbed her with his 
knife. She then fled from the company. He stood looking after her, and seeing she 
did not fall, pursued her, threw her to the earth and drove his knife into her heart, in 
the presence of the whole company, none of whom ventured to save the girl's life." 
P. 85. / . 

t Vide American Cyclopiedia, vol. 11, p. 490. 

t His name was, also, speHed Dazney and Dagnett. He was bom on the 25th of 
December, 1799, at the Wea village of Old Orchard Town, or We-an-ta-uo, "The 
Ri sen Sun," situated two miles below Fort Harrison. His father, Ambroise Dagney, 



134 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

fall of 1840, and reached Cincinnati on canal-boats in October of 
that year. Here tliej were }3laced n})on a steamboat and taken down 
the Ohio, up the Mississippi and Missouri, and landed late in the 
season at "Westport, near Kansas City. Hagged men and nearly 
naked women and cliildren, forming a motley group, were huddled 
upon the shore, alone, with no friends to relieve their wants, and 
exposed to the bitter December winds that l)lew fi-om the chilly 
plains of Kansas. In IGTO the Jesuit Father Dablon inti-oduces the 
]\riamis to our notice at the village of IVIaskoutcneh, where we see 
the chief surrouiuled by his officers of state in all the I'otitiue of bar- 
baric display, and the natives of other tribes paying his subjects the 
greatest deference. The Miamis, advancing eastward, in the rear of 
the line of their valorous warriors, pushed their villages into Michi- 
gan, Indiana, and as far as the river still bearing their name in Ohio. 
Coming in collision with the French, English and Americans, re- 
duced by constant w^ars, and decimated, more than all, with vices 
contracted by intercourse with the whites, whose virtues they failed 
to emulate, they make a westward turn, and having, in the progress 
of time, described the round of a most singular journey, we at last 
behold the miserable and friendless remnant on the same side of the 

' was a Frenchman, a native of Kaskaskia, and served during Harrison's campaign 
against the Indians, in 1811, in Captain Scott's company, raised at Vincennes. He 
took part in the battle ot^ Tippecanoe. His mother. Me-chin-quam-e-sha, the Beauti- 
ful Shade Tree, was the sister of Jocco, or Tack-ke-ke-kah, "The Tall Oak," who 
was chief of the Wea band living at the village named, and whose people claimed 
the country east of the Wabash, from the mouth of Sugar Creek to a point some dis- 
tance below Tgrre Haute. " Me-chin-quam-e-sha" died in 1822, and was buried at 
Fort Harrison. Christmas Dagney received a good education under the instruction of 
the Catholics. He spoke French and English with great fluency, and was master of 
the dialects of the several Wabash tribes. For many years he was government inter- 
preter at- Fort Harrison, and subsequently Indian agent, having the superintendency 
of the Wabash Miamis, whom he conducted westward. On the 16th of February, 
1819, he was married to " Mary Ann Isaacs," of the Brothertown Indians, who had 
been spending a few weeks at the mission house of Isaac McCoy, situated on Raccoon 
Creek, — or Pisheir((, as it was called by the Indians, — a few miles above Armysburg. 
The marriage was performed by Mr. McCoy "in the presence of our Indian neighbors, 
Avho were invited to attend the ceremony. And we had the happiness to liave twenty- 

V three of the natives partake of a meal prepared on the occasion." Jlde page 64 in his 
book, before quoted. This was, doubtless, the first marriage that was celebrated after 
the formality of our laws within the present limits of Parke country. By the terms of 
the treaty at St. Mary's, concluded on the 2d of October. 1818, one section of land was 
reserved for the exclusive use of Mr. Dagney, and he went to Washington and selected 
a section that included the village of Armysburg, which at that time was the county 
seat, and consisted of a row of log houses formed out of sugar-tree logs and built 
continuously together, from which circumstance it derived the name of " Stnng- 
town." As a speculation the venture was not successful, for the seat of justice was 
removed to Rockville, and town lots at Stringtown ceased to have even a prospective 
value. Mr. Dagney 's family occupied the reservation as a farm until about 1846. Mr. 
Dagney died iri 1848, at Coldwater Grove, Kansas. Her second husband was Babtise 

'•' Peoria. Mrs.^abtise Peoria had superior opportunities to acquire an extensive knowl- 
edge of the Wabasli tribes between Vmcennes and Fort Wayne, as she lived on the 
Wabash from 1817 until 1846. She is now living at Paola, Kansas, where the author 
met her in November, 1878. * 



RKMOVAL WESTWARD. • 135 

Mississippi from wIioticc tlicii" \v;irlikej3rogenitors had conio nearly 
two centuries before. 

From West])ort tlie Mississinewas were conducted to a place 
near tlie present village of Lowisburg, Kansas, in the county named 
(Miami) after tlie tribe. Here they suffered greatly. Nearly one 
third of their number died the fi rst year. They were homesick and 
disconsolate to the last degree. " Strong men would actually weep, 
as their thoughts recurred to their dear old homes in Indiana, 
whither many of them would make journeys, barefooted, begging 
their waj', and submitting to the imprecations hurled from the door 
of the white man upon them as they asked for a crust of bread. 
They wanted to die to forget their miseries." ''I have seen," says 
Mrs. l ^ary Baptiste to the author, " mothers and fathers give their 
little children away to others of the tribe for adoption, and after 
singing their funeral songs, and joining in the solemn dance of 
death, go calmly away from the assemblage, to be seen no more 
alive. The Miamis could not be reconciled to the prairie winds of 
Kansas ; they longed for the woods and groves that gave a partial 
shade to the flashing waters of the Wah-pc-slia/""^' 

The AVea and Piankeshaw bands prece ded the Mississinewas to 
the westward. They had become reduced to a wretched community 
of about two hundred and fift}^ souls, and they suftered severely 
during the civil war, in Kansas. Tlie Miamis, Weas, Piankeshaws, 
and the remaining fragments of the Kaskaskias, containing under 
that name what yet remained of the several subdivisions of the old 
mi ni co nfederacy, were gathered together by Baptiste Pe oria, and 
consolidated under the title of Th e C onfederated Tribes. f This 

* The, peculiar sound with which Mrs. Baptiste gave the Miami pronunciation of 
Wabash'is dithcult to express in mere letters. The principal accent is on the first syl- 
lable, the minor accent on the last, while the second syllable is but slightly sounded. 
The word means •"white" in both the Miami and Peoria dialects. In treating upon 
the derivation of the word Wabash (p. 100), the manuscript containing the statements 
of Mrs. Baptiste was overlooked. ^, 

tThis remarkable man was the son of a daughter of a sub-chief of the Peoi-ia 
tribe. He was born, according to the best information, in 1793. near the confluence of 
the Kankakee and Maple, as the Des Plaines River was called by the Illinois Indians 
and the French respectively. His reputed father was a French Canadian trader liv- 
ing with this tribe, and whose name was Baptiste. Young Peoria was called Batticy 
by his mother. Later in life he was known as Baptiste the Peoria, and finally as Bap- 
tiste Peoria. The people of his tribe gave the name a liquid sound, and pronounced 
it as if it were spelled Paola. The county seat of Miami county, Kansas, is named 
after him. He was a man of large frame, active, and possessed of great strength and 
courage. Like Keokuk, the great chief of the Sacs and Fox Indians, Paola was fond 
of athletic sports, and was an expert horseman. He had a ready command both of 
the French Canadian and the English languages. He was familiar with the dialects of 
the Pottawatomies, Shawnees, Delawares, Miamis and Kickapoos. These qualifications 
as a linguist soon Itrought him into prominence among the Indians, while his known 
■ integri tv commended his services to the United States government. From the year 
1821 to the year 1838 he assisted in the removal of the above-named ti-ibes from Indi- 



13G HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

little confederation disposed of their reservation m Miami county, 
Kansas, and adjacent vicinity, and retired to a tract of reduced 
dimensions within the Indian Territory. Since their last change of 
location in 1807 they have made but little progress in their efforts 
toward a higher civilization. The numbers of what remains of the 
once numerous Illinois and Miami confederacies are reduced -to less 
than two hundred persons. The Mianiis, like the unfortunate man 
who has carried his dissipations beyond the limit from which there 
can be no healthy reaction, seem not to have recovered from the 
vices contracted before leaving the states, and with some notable 
exceptions, they are a listless, idle people, little worthy of the spirit 
that inspired the breasts of their ancestors. 

ana and Illinois to their reservations beyond the Mississippi. His duties as Indian 
agent brought him in contact with many of the early settlers on the Illinois and the 
Wabash, from Vincennes to Fort Wayne. In 1818, when about twenty-five years of 
age, Batticy represented his tribe at the treaty at Edwardsville. By this treaty, which is 
signed by representatives from all the five ti'ibes comprising the Illinois or Illini nation 
of Indians, viz, the Peorias, Kaskaskias, Mitchigamias, Cahokias and Tamaoris, it 
appears that for a period of years anterior to that time the Peorias h ad lived, and were 
then living, separate and apart from the other tribes named. Treaties with the Indian 
Tribes, etc., p. 247, government edition. 1837. By this treaty the several tribes named 
ceded to the United States the residue of their lands in Illinois. For nearly thirty years 
was Baptiste Peoria in the service of the United States. In 1867 Peoria became the 
chief of the consolidated tribes of the Miamis and Illinois, and went with them to 
their new reservation in the northeast corner of the Indian Territory, where he died 
on the 13th of September, 1873, aged eighty years. Some years before his death he 
married Mary Baptiste. the widow of Christmas Dagney, who, as before stated, still 
.survives. I am indebted to this lady for copies of the " Western Spirit," a newspaper 
published at Paola, and the "Fort Scott Monitor," containing obituary notices and 
biographical sketches of her late husband, from which this notice of Baptiste Peoria 
has been summarized. Baptiste may be said to be "the last of the Peorias." He 
made a manly and pei-sistent effort to save the fragment of the Illinois and Miamis, 
and by precepts and example tried to encourage them to adopt the ways of civilized 
life. 



1 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE POTTAWATOMIES. 

When the Jesuits were extending their missions westward of 
Quebec they found a tribe of Indians, called Ottawas, living upon 
a river of Canada, to which the name of Ottawa was given. After 
the dispersion of the Ilurons by the Iroquois, in 1649, the Ottawas, 
to the number of one thousand, joined five hundred of the discom- 
fited Hurons, and with them retired to the southwestern shore of 
Lake Superior.* The fugitives were followed by the missionaries, 
who established among them the Mission of the Holy Ghost, at La 
Pointe, already mentioned. Shortly after the establishment of the 
mission the Jesuits nuide an enumeration of the w^estern Algonquin 
tribes, in which all are mentioned except the Ojibbeways and Pian- 
keshaws. The nation which dwelt south of the mission, classified as 
speaking the pure Algonquin, is uniformly called Ottawas, and the 
Ojibbeways, by whom they were surrounded, were never once noticed 
by that name. Hence it is certain that at that early day the Jesuits 
considered the Ottawas and Ojibbeways as one people.! 

In close consanguinity with the Ottawas and Ojibbeways were 
the Pottawatomies, between whom there was only a slight dialectical 
difference in language, while the manners and customs prevailing in 
the three tribes were almost identical. :|; This view was again re- 
asserted by Mr. Gallatin: "Although it must be admitted that the 
Algonquins, the Ojibbeways, the Ottawas and the Pottawatomies 
speak different dialects, these are so nearly allied that they may be 
considered rather as dialects of the same, than as distinct languages. "§ 

This conclusion of Mr. Gallatin was arrived at after a scientific 
and analytical com})arison of the languages of the tribes mentioned. 

In confirniati(jn of the above statement we have the speeches of 
three Indian chiefs at Chicago in the month of August, 1821. Dur- 
ing the progress of the treaty, Keewaygooshkum, a chief of the first 
authority among the Ottawas, stated that "the Chippewas, the Pot- 

* Jesuit Relations for 1666. 

t Albert Gallatin's Synopsis of the Indian Tribes, p. 27. 
t Jesuit Relations. 

§ Synopsis of the Indian Tribes, p. 29. 
137 



138 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

tawatoinies and the Ottawas loere originally one nation. "We sepa- 
rated tVoni each otlier near Michilimackinac. We were rehited by 
the ties of Ijlood. hinn"uaii"e and interest, but in tlie course of a long: 
time tliese things have been forgotten,'' etc. 

At the conchision of this speecli, Mich-el, an aged chief of the 
Chippewas, said : "My Brethren, — I am about to speak a few words. 
T know you expect it. Be silent, therefore, that the words of an old 
man may be heard. 

"My Brethren, — You have heard the man who has just spoken. 
We are all descended from the same stock, — the Pottawatomies. the 
C'hippeways and the Ottawas. We consider ourselves as one. Why 
should we not always act in concert? " 

Metea, the most powerful of the Pottawatomie chieftains, in his 
speech made this statement : 

"Brothers, Chippeways and Ottawas, — we consider ourselves as 
one people, which you know, as also our tather- here, who has trav- 
eled over our country."" 

Mr. Schoolcraft, in commenting on the above statements, re- 
marks : "This testimony of a common origin derives additional 
weight from the general resemblance of tliese tribes in person, man- 
ners, customs and dress, but above all by their having one council- 
iii-e and speaking one language. Still there are obvious characteris- 
tics which will induce an observer, after a general acquaintance, to 
])ronounce the Pottawatomies tall, fierce, haughty ; the Ottawas 
shoi't, thick-set, good-natured, industrious ; the Chippeways warlike, 
daring, etc. But the general lineaments, or, to borrow a phrase 
from natural history, the suite features, are identical, f 

The first mention that we have of the Pottawatomies is in the 
Jesuit Relations for the years 1631>— io. They are then mentioned as 
dwelling beyond the River St. Lawrence, and to the north of the 
great lake of the Hurons. At this period it is very likely that the 
Pottawatomies had their homes both north of Lake Huron and 
south of it, in the northern part of the present State of Michigan. 
Twenty-six or seven years after this date the country. of the Potta- 
watomies is described as being "about the Lake of the Ilimouek.":{: 
They w^ere mentioned as being ''■a warlike people, hunters and fish- 
ers. Their country is very good for Lulian corn, of which they 
plant fields, and to which they willingly retire to avoid the famine 
that is too common in these quart<?rs. They are in the highest de- 
gree idolaters, attached to ridiculous fabh-s and devoted to polygamy. 

* Lewis Cass. f Schoolcraft's Central Mississippi Valley, pp. 357, 3G0, 368. 

\ Lake Michigan. 



THE POTTAWATOMIES. 139 

Wt' liave seen them here" to the number of tliree hundred men, all 
ea| table of bearing arms. ( )f all the people that I have associated with 
in these countries, thev are the most docile and the most affectionate 
toward the French. Their wives and daughters are more reserved 
than those of other nations. They have a species of civility among 
them, and make it apparent to strangers, which is very rare among 
our barbarians. " + 

In IGTo the Pottawatomies had collected at the islands at the 
mouth of Green Bay which have taken their name from this tribe. 
Father Claude Dablon, in a letter concerning the mission of St. 
Francis Xavier, which was located on Green Bay, in speaking of 
this tribe, remarks that "the Pouteouatami, the Ousaki, and those 
of the Forks, also dwell here, but (is strangers^ the fear of the Iro- 
quois having driven them from their lands, which are between the 
Lake of the Ilurons and that of the Illinois."':}; 

In 1721, says Charlevoix, "the Poutewatamies possessed only 
one of the small islands at the mouth of Green Bay, but had two 
other villages, one on the St. Joseph and the other at the Nar- 
rows."^ 

Driven out of the peninsula between lakes Huron and Michigan, 
the Pottawatomies took up their abode on the Bay de Noquet, and 
other islands near the entrance of Green Bay. From these islands 
they advanced southward along the west shore of Lake Michigan. 
Extracts taken from Ileimepin's Xarrative of La Salle's Voyage 
mention the fact that the year previous to La Salle's coming west- 
ward (1678), he had sent out a party of traders in advance, who had 
bartered successfully with the Pottawatomies upon the islands 
named, and who were anxiously waiting for La Salle at the time of 
his arrival in the Griliin. Hennepin further states that La Salle's 
party bartered with the Pottawatomies at the villages they y^assed 
on the voyage southward. 

From this time forward the Pottawatomies steadily moved south- 
ward. When La Salle reached the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan 
there were no Pottawatomies in that vicinity. Shortly after this 
date, however, they had a village on the south bank of this stream, 
near the jtresent city of Xiles, Michigan. On the northern bank 
was a village of !Miamis. The Mission of St. Joseph was here 
established aiul in successful operation prior to 1711. from which 
fact, with other incidental circumstances, it has been inferred that 

* La Pointe. % Jesuit Relations, 1670-71. 

t Jesuit Relations, 1666-7. § Detroit. 



140 HISTORIC XOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

the Pottawatomies, as well as the mission, were on the St. Joseph as 
early as the year 170t».-' 

Father Charlevoix tixes the location of botli the mission (ind the 
military post as being at the same place beyond a doubt. '' It was 
eight days yesterday since I arrived at this post, where we have a 
mission, and where there is a commandant with a small garrison. 
The commandant's house, which is a \ery sorry one, is called the 
tort, from its being surrounded by an inditferent palisado, which is 
pretty near the case in all the rest, except Forts Chambly and Cata- 
rocony, which are real fortresses. We have here two villages of 
Indians, one of Miamis and the other of Pottawatomies, both of 
them mostly (Christians ; but as they have been for a long time with- 
out any pastors, the missionary who has lately been sent them will 
have no small difficulty in bringing them back to the exercise of 
their religion." + 

The authorities for locating the old mission and fort of St. Joseph 
near Niles are Charlevoix, Prof. Keating and the Rev. Isaac Mc- 
Coy. Commenting on the remains of the old villages upon the St. 
Joseph River at the time Long's expedition passed that way, in 1823, 
the compiler states that *'the prairies, woodland and river were 
rendered more picturesc|ue by the ruins of Strawberry, Rum and 
St. Joseph's villages, formerly the residence of the Indians or of 
the first French settlers. It was curious to trace the difference in 
the remains of the habitations of the red and white man in the 
nudst of this distant solitude. AVhile the untenanted cabin of the 

* Some confusion has arisen from a confounding of the Mission of St. Joseph and 
Fort St. Joseph with the Fort Miamis. The two were distinct, some miles apart, and 
erected at different dates. It is plain, from the accounts given by Hennepin, Membre 
and LaHontan, that Fort Miamis was located on Lake Michigan, at the moitth of the 
St. Joseph. It is equally clear that the Mission of St. Joseph and Fort St. Joseph 
were Fsome miles up the St. Joseph River, and a few miles bdoir the '"portage of the 
Kankakee " at South Bend. Father Charlevoix, in his letter of the 16th of August. 
1721. — after having in a previous letter referred to his reaching the St. Joseph and 
going up it toward the fort,— says: "We afterward sailed up twenty leagues before 
we reached the fort." Vol. 2, p. 94. Again, in a subsequent letter (p. 184): " I de- 
parted yesterday from the Fort of the River St. Joseph and sailed up that river about 
six leagues. I went ashore on the right and walked a league and a quarter, first along 
the water side and afterward across a field in an immense meadow, entirely covered 
with copses ot wood." And in the next paragraph, on the same page, follows his 
description of the sources of the Kankakee, quoted in this work on page 77. Here, 
then, we have the position of Fort St. Joseph and the mission of that name and the 
two villages of the Pottawatomies and the Miamis. on the St. Joseph River, six leagues 
helow^onih Bend. In Dr. Shea's Catholic Missions, page 423, it is stated that " La Salle, 
on his way to the Mississippi, had built a temporary fort on the St. Joseph, not far 
from the portage leading to the The-a-ki-ke"; and Mr. Charles R. Brown, in his 
Missions, Forts and Trading Posts of the Northwest, p. 14, says that " Fort Miamis, 
built at the mouth of the St. Joseph's River by La Salle, was afterward called St. 
Joseph, to distinguish it from (Fort) Miamis, on the Maumee." In this instance 
neither of these writers follow the text of established authorities, 
t Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, pp. 93, 94. 



ST. JOSEPH. 141 

Indian presented in its neighborhood but the remains of an old 
corntield overgrown with weeds, the rude hut of the Frenchman was 
surrounded witli vines, and witli the remains of his former garden- 
ing exertions. Tlie asparagus, the pea vuie and tlie woodbine still 
grow about it, as though in defiance of the revolutions which have 
dispersed those who planted them here. The very names of the 
villages nuirk the difference between their former tenants. Those 
of the Indians were designated by the name of the fruit which grew 
abundantly on the spot or of the object which they coveted most, 
while the French missionary has placed his village under the patron- 
age of the tutelar saint in whom he reposed his utmost confidence. "- 

The asparagus, the pea-vine and the woodbine preserved the 
identity of the spot against the encroachments of the returning for- 
ests until 1S22, when Isaac McCoy established among the Pottawat- 
omies the Baptist mission called Carey, out of respect for the Rev. 
Mr. Carey, a missionary of the same church in Hindostan. ''It is 
said that the Pottawatomies themselves selected this spot for Carey's 
mission, it being the site of their old village. This must have been 
very populous, as the remains of corn-hills are very visible at this 
time, and are said to extend over a thousand acres. The village 
was finally abandoned about fifty years ago (1773), but there are a 
few of the oldest of the nation who still recollect the sites of their 
respective huts. They are said to frequently visit the establishment 
and to trace with deep feeling a spot which is endeared to them.''' f 

On a cold winter night in 1833 a traveler was ferried over the 
St. Joseph at the then straggling village of Niles. ''Ascending the 
bank, a beautiful plain with a clump of trees here and there upon its 
surface opened to his view. The establishment of Carey's mission, 
a long, low, white building, could be distinguished afar off faintly 
in the moonlight, while several winter lodges of the Pottawatomies 
were plainly visible over the plain." :{: 

Concerning the Pottawatomie village near Detroit, and also some 
of the customs peculiar to the tribe, we have the following account. 
It was written in 1718 : Jj 

"The fort of Detroit is south of the river. The village of the 
Pottawatomies adjoins the fort ; they lodge partly under Apaquois, j| 

* Long's Second Expedition, vol. 1, pp. 147, 148. 

t Long's Second Expedition, vol. 1, p. 15:5, McCoy's History of Baptist Indian Mis- 
sions. 

t Hoffman's Winter in the West, vol. 1, p. 225. 

§ Memoir on the Indians between Lake Erie and the Mississippi. Pai-is Documents, 
vol. 9, p. 887. 

I Apaquois, matting made of flags or rushes; from upee, a leaf, and viigquomm, a 
hut. They cover their huts with mats made of rushes platted. Carver's Travels. 



142 HISTOUIC NOTKS ON THK NORTHWEST. 

wliicli are made of mat-grass. The W(;iiieii do all the work. The 
men beloiiiiinti' to that nation are well clothed, like our domiciliated 
Indians at Montreal. Their entire occupation is hunting and dress ; 
they make use of a great deal of vermilion, and in winter wear 
buffalo robes richly painted, and in sununer either blue or red cloth. 
They ]dav a good deal at La Crosse in summer, twenty or more on 
each sidi". Their bat is a sort of a little racket, and the ball with 
which they j)lay is nuide of very heavy wood, somewhat larger than 
the balls used at tennis. When phiying tliey are entirely naked, 
except a breech cloth and moccasins on their feet. Their body is 
completelv painted with all sorts of colors. Some, with white clay, 
trace white lace on their b<xlies, as if on all the seams of a coat, and 
at a distance it would be apt to be taken for silver lace. They play 
very dee}) and often. The bets sometimes amount to more than 
eight hundred livres. They set up two poles, and commence the 
game from the center; one party propels the ball from one side and 
the others from the opposite, and whichever reaches the goal wins. 
This is fine recreation and worth seeing. They often play village 
against village, the Poux"'^ against the Ottawas or Ilurons, and 
hiv heavy stakes. Sometimes Frenchmen join in the game with 
them. The women cultivate Indian corn, beans, peas, squashes and 
melons, wliicli come up very fine. The women and girls dance at 
night ", adorn themselves considerably, grease their hair, put on a 
white shift, . paint their cheeks with vermilion, and wear whatever 
wampum they possess, and are very tidy in their way. They dance 
to the sound of the drum and sisiquoi, wdiicli is a sort of gourd con- 
taining some grains of shot. Four or five young men sing and beat 
time with the drum and sisiquoi, and the women keep time and do 
not lose a step. It is very entertaining, and lasts almost the entire 
night. The old men often dance the jMedicine.f They resemble a 
set of demons ; and all this takes place during the night. The 
young men often dance in a circle and strike posts. It is then they 
recount their achievements and dance, at the same time, the war 
dance ; and whenever they act thus they are highly ornamented. It 
is altogether very curious. They often perform these things for 
tobacco. AVhen they go hunting, which is every tall, they carry 
their apaquois with them, to hut under at night. Everybody follows, 

* The Pottawatomies were sometimes known by the contraction Poux. La Hontan 
uses this name, and erroneously confounds them with the Puans or Winnebagoes. In 
giving the coat-of-arms of the Pottawatomies, representing a dog crouched in the 
grass, he says: "They were called Puants." Vol. 2, p. 84. 

t Medicine dance. 



ORIGIN OF POTTAWATOMIE. 143 

men, women and cliildren. They winter in the forest and return in 
tlie spring." 

Tlie Pottawatoinies swarmed from their prolilic liives about the 
islands of Mackinaw, aild spread themselves over portions of Wis- 
consin, and eastward to their ancient homes in Michigan. At a 
later day they extended themselves upon the territory of the ancient 
Illinois, covering a large portion of the state. From the St. Joseph 
"River and Detroit their Ijands moved southward over that part of 
Indiana north and west of the Wabash, and thence down that 
stream. They were a populous horde of hai'dy children of the 
forests, of great stamina, and their constitutions were hardened by 
the rigorous climate of the northern lakes. 

Among the old French writers the orthography of the word 
Pottawatomies varied to suit the taste of the writer. We give some 
of the forms: Poutouatimi,^^ Pouteotatamis,-!- Poutouatamies,:}: Pou- 
tewatamis,^ Pautawattamies, Puttewatamies, Pottowottamies and 
Pottawattamies. [ The tribe was divided into four clans, the Golden 
Carp, the Frog, the Crab, and the Tortoise. "[ The nation was not 
like the Illinois and Miamis, divided into separate tribes, but the 
different bands would separate or unite according to the scarcity or 
abundance of game. 

The word Pottawatomie signifies, in their own language, ive are 
Tiiahing a fire^ for the origin of which they have the following tradi- 
tion : "It is said that a Miami, having wandered out from his cabin, 
met three Indians whose language was unintelligible to him; by signs 
and motions he invited them to follow him to his cabin, where they 
were hospitably entertained, and where they remained until after 
dark. During the night two of the strange Indians stole from the 
hut, while their comrade and host were asleep ; they took a few 
embers from the cabin, and, placing these near the door of the hut, 
they made a fire, which, being afterward seen by the Miaun and 
remaining guest, was understood to imply a council fire in token of 
peace between the two nations. From this circumstance the Miami 
called them in his language Wa-ho-na-ha^ or the fire-makers, which, 
being translated into the language of the three guests, produced the 
term by which their nation has ever since been distinguished."' 

After this the Miamis termed the Pottawatomies their younger 
brothers ; but afterward, in a council, this was changed, from the 

* Jesuit Relations. S Charlevoix. 

t Father Membre. || Paris Documents. 

jJoutel's Journal. 

^ Enumeration of the Indian tribes, the Warriors and Armorial Bearings of each 
Nation, made in 1736. Published in Documentai-y History of New York. 



144 rilSTOKIC NOTES ox THE NORTHWEST, 

circiiinstance that they resided farther to the west; "as those nations 
whicli reside to the west of others are deemed more ancient."* 

The Pottawatomies were nnswerving in their adherence to the 
French, when the hitter had possession of the boundless Northwest. 
In 1712, when a hirge force of Mascoutins and Foxes besieged De- 
troit, tliev were conspicuous for their fidelity. They rallied the 
other tribes to the assistance of the French, and notified the besieged 
garrison to hold out against their enemies until their arrival. Mak- 
is-abie^ the war chief of the Pottawatomies, sent word through Mr. 
de Vincennes, "just arrived from the Miami country, that he would 
soon be at Detroit with six hundred of his warriors to aid the French 
and eat those miserable nations who had troubled all the country." 
The commandant, M. du Buisson, was gratified when he ascended 
a bastion, and looking toward the forest saw the army of the nations 
issuing from it ; the Pottawatomies, the Illinois, the Missouris, the 
Ottawas, the Sacs and the Menominees were there, armed and painted 
in all the glory of war. Detroit never saw such a collection. " My 
Father," says the chief to the commandant, "I speak to you on 
the part of all the nations, your children who are before you. What 
you did last year in drawling their flesh from the fire, which the Ou- 
tagamies (Foxes) were about to roast and eat, demands we should 
bring you our bodies to make you the master of them. We do not 
fear death, whenever it is necessary to die for you. We have only 
to request that you pray the father of all nations to have pity on our 
women and our children, in case we lose our lives for you. We beg 
you throw a blade of grass upon our bones to protect them from the 
flies. You see, my father, that we have left our villages, our women 
and children to hasten to join you. Have pit}' on us ; give us some- 
thing to eat and a little tobacco to smoke. We have come a long 
ways and are destitute of everything. Give us powder and balls to 
fight with you." 

Makisabie, the Pottawatomie, said to the Foxes and Mascoutines: 
"Wicked nations that you are, you hope to frighten us by all the 
red color which you exhibit in your village. Learn that if the earth 
is covered with blood, it will be with yours. You talk to us of the 
English, they are the cause of your destruction, because you have 
listened to their bad council. . . . The English, wlio are cowards, 
only defend themselves by killing men by that wicked strong drink, 
which has caused so many men to die after d]-inkiiig it. Thus we 
shall see what will happen to you for listening to them." f 

* Long's Expedition to the Sources of the St. Peter's River, vol. 1. pp. 91, !)2, 93. 
tThe extracts we have quoted are taken from the official report of Da Buisson. 



WARS AGAINST THE WHITES. 145 

The Pottawatomies sustained their alliance with the French con- 
tinuously to the time of the overthrow of their power in the north- 
west. They then aided their kinsman. Pontiac, in his attempt to 
recover the same territory from the British. They fought on the 
side of the British against the Americans throughout the war of the 
revolution, and their war parties made destructive and frequent raids 
upon the line of pioneer settlements in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, 
Ohio and Indiana. In the war of 1812 they were again ranged on 
the side of the British, with their bloody hands lifted alike against 
the men, women and children of ''the States." 

In the programme of Pontiac' s war the capture of Post St. 
Joseph, on the St. Joseph's river of Lake Michigan, was assigned to 
the Pottawatomies, which was effected as will be hereafter narrated. 

It was also the Pottawatomies who perpetrated tlie massacre at 
Chicago on the 15th day of August, 1812. Bands of this tribe, from 
their villages on the St. Joseph, the Kankakee and the Illinois rivers, 
whose numbers w'ere augmented by the appearance of Metea with 
his warriors, from their village westward of Fort Wayne, fell upon 
the forces of Captain Ileald, and the defenseless women and chil- 
dren retreating with him after the surrender of Fort Dearborn, and 
murdered or made prisoners of them all. Metea was a conspicuous 
leader in this horrible affair." 

Robert Dixon, the British trader sent out among the Indians 
during the war of 1812 to raise recruits for Proctor and Tecumseh, 
gathered in the neighborhood of Chicago, which after the massacre 
was his place of general rendezvous, nearly one thousand warriors 
of as wild and cruel savages as ever disgraced the human race. They 
w^ere the most worthless and abandoned desperadoes whom Dixon 
had been enabled to collect from among all the tribes he had visited. 
These accomplices of the British were to be let loose upon the re- 
mote settlements under the leadership of the Pottawatomie chief, 
Mai-po(']i\ or Mai-po^ a monster in human form, who distinguished 
himself with a girdle sewed full of hunuxn scalps, which he wore 
around his waist, and strings of bear's claws and bills of owls and 
hawks around his ankles, worn as trophies of his power in arms and 
as a terror to his enemies. f 

relating to the siege of Detroit. The manuscript copy of it was obtained from the 
archives at Paris, by Gen. Cass, when minister to France, and is published at length 
in volume III of the History of Wisconsin, compiled by the direction of the legislatnre 
of that state by William R. Smith, President of the State Historical Society ; a work 
of very great value, not only to the State of Wisconsin but to the entire Northwest, for 
the amount of reliable historical information it contains. 

* Hall and McKenney's History of the Indian Tribes of North America, vol. 2, 
pp. 59, 60. 

t McAfee's History of the Late War, pp. 297, 298. 
10 



146 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

Their iikiiiikm's, like tlieir dialect, were rough tiiid barbarous as 
com[>ai-e(l with other AlgoiKjuiu tribes. They were. not the civil, 
modest i)eo])k', an exceptional and christianized baud of whom tlie 
Jesuits before (juoted di-ew a tiattering description. 

''It is a fact that for many years the current of emigration as to 
the tribes east of the Mississippi has been from the north to tlie south. 
This was owing to two causes: the diminution of those animals from 
which the Indians derive tlieir support, and the pressure of the two 
great tribes, — the Ojibbeways and the Sioux, — to the north and 
west. So long ago as 1795, at the treaty of Greenville, the Potta- 
watomies notitied the Miamis that they intended to settle upon the 
Wabash. They made no pretensions to the country, and the only 
excuse for the intended aggression was that tliey were tired of eating 
fish and wanted meout.'''''^ And come they did. They bore down 
upon their less populous neighbors, the Miamis, and occupied a large 
portion of their territory, impudently and by sheer force of numbers, 
rather than by force of arms. They established numerous villages 
upon the north and west bank of the AV abash and its tributaries 
ilowing in from that side of the stream above the Yermilion. They, 
with the Sacs, Foxes and Xickapoos, drove the Illinois into the vil- 
lages about Kaskaskia, and ])ortioned the con<|uested territory among 
themselves. • By other tribes they were called squatters, who justly 
claimed that the Pottawatomies never had any land of their own, 
and were mere intruders upon the prior rights of others. They were 
foremost at all treaties where lands were to be ceded, and were clam- 
orous for a lion's share of presents and annuities, particularly where 
these last were the price given for the sale of others' lands rather 
than their own.f Between the years 1789 and 1S;>7 the Pottawato- 
mies, by themselves, or in connection with other tribes, made no 
less than thirty-eight treaties with the United States, all of which, — 
excepting two or three which were treaties of peace only, — were for 
cessions of lands claimed wholly by the Pottawatomies, or in com- 
mon with other tribes. These cessions embraced territory extending 
from the Mississippi eastward to Cleveland, Ohio, and reaching over 
the entire valleys of the Illinois, the AVabash, the Maumee and their 
tributaries. :{: 

They also had villages upon the Kankakee and Illinois rivers. 
Among them we name 2finemaung, or Yellow Head, situated a 

* Official letter to the Secretary of War, dated March 22, 1814. 
t Schoolcraft's Central Mississippi Valley, )). 358. 

X Treaties between the United States and the several Indian tribes, from 1778 to 
1837: Washington, D.C., 1837. 



THEIR VILLAGES. 147 

few miles north of Momence, at a point of timber still known as 
Yellow Head Point; She-mar-gar ^ or the Soldier's Village, at the 
mouth of Soldier Creek, that runs through Kankakee City, and the 
village of " Little Rock " or Shaw-waw-nas-see, at the mouth of Rock 
Creek, a few miles below Kankakee City.* Besides these, the Pot- 
tawatomies had villages farther down the Illinois, particularly the 
great town of Como, Gumo, or Gumbo as the pioneers called it, at the 
upper end of Peoria Lake. They had other towns on the Milwaukee 
River, Wisconsin. On the St. Joseph, near Niles, was the village of 
To-pen-ne-hee^ the great hereditary chief of the Pottawatomie nation ; 
higher up, near the present village of White Pigeon, was situated 
Wajy-pe-me-me' Sy or White Pigeon's town. Westward of Fort Wayne, 
Indiana, nine miles, was Mas-kvKi-wa-sejye-otan^ "the town of old 
Red Wood creek," where resided the band of the distinguished war- 
rior and orator of the Pottawatomies, Metea, whose name in their 
language signifies kiss rae. 

Finally, the renowned Kesis^ or the sun, the old friend of Gen- 
eral Ilamtrauck and the Americans, in a speech to General AVayne 
at the treaty of Greenville in 1795, said th.a.t his village '"was a day's 
walk below the Wea towns on the Wabash," referring, doubtless, to 
the mixed Pottawatomie and Kickapoo town which stood on the site 
of the old Shelby farm, on the north bank of the Yermilion, a short 
distance above its mouth. + 

The positions of several of the principal Pottawatonlie villages 
have been given for the purpose of showing the area of country 
over which this people extended themselves. As late as 1823 their 
hunting grounds appeared to have been "bounded on the north by 
the St. Joseph (which on the east side of Lake Michigan separated 
them from the Ottawas) and the Milwacke,:|: which, on the west side 
of the lake, divided them from the Menomonees. They spread to the 
south along tlie Illinois River about two hundred miles; to the west 

* The location of these three villages of Pottawatomies is fixed by the surveys of 
reservations to Mine-maung, Shemargar and Shaw-waw-nas-see respectively, secured 
to them by the second article of a treaty concluded at Camp Tippecanoe, near Logans- 
port, Indiana, on the 20th of October, 1832, between the United States and the chiefs 
and head men of the Pottawatomie tribe of Indians of the prairie and of the Kanka- 
kee. The reservations were surveyed in the presence of the Indians concerned and 
General Tipton, agent on the part of the United States, in the month of May, 1834. 
by Major Dan W. Beckwith, surveyor. The reservations were so surveyed as to include 
the several villages we have named, as appears from the manuscript volumes of the 
surveys in possession of the author. 

t Journal of the Proceedings at the Treaty of Greenville: American State Papers 
on Indian Affairs, vol. 1, p. 580. The author has authorities and manuscripts from 
which the location of Kesis' band at the mouth of the Vermilion may be quite confi- 
dently affirmed. ^ 

X Milwaukee. 



148 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

their grounds extended as fur us Rock River, und the Mequin or 
Spoon River of the Illinois ; to the eust tliey pi-obubly seldom ])ussed 
beyond the Wubash."* After the Kickupoos und Rottuwutoniies 
had established, themselves in the vulley of the Wubush, it wus 
nuituully ugreed between them und the Miumis thut the river should 
be the dividing line, — the Pottawutomies und Kickupoos to occupy 
the west, and the Miamis to remain undisturbed on the east or south 
side of the stream. It was u hard bargain for the Miumis, who were 
unable to maintain their rights. f 

The Pottawatomies were among the last to leave their possessions 
in Illinois and Indiana, and it was the people of this tribe with 
whom the first settlers came principally in contact. Their hostility 
ceased at the close of the war of 1S12. After this their intercourse 
with the whites was uniformly friendly, and they bore the many im- 
positions and petty grievances which were put upon them by not a 
few of their unprincipled and unfeeling white neighbors with a for- 
bearance thut should huve excited public sympathy. 

The Pottuwutomies owned extensive tracts of lund on the "Wubash, 
between the mouth of Pine Creek, in Warren county, und the Fort 
Wayne portage, which hud been reserved to them by the terms of 
their several treaties with the United States. They held like cluims 
upon the Tippecunoe and other westwurd tributuries of the Wubush, 
and elsewhere in northwestern Indiana, eastern Illinois and southern 
jVfichigan. These reservations are now covered by some of the 
finest farms in the states named. The treaties by which such reser- 
vations were granted generally contained a clause that debarred the. 
owner from alienating them without having fii'st secured the sanction 
of the President of the United States. This restriction was de- 
signed to prevent unprincipled persons from oveiTeaching the Indian, 
who, at best, had only a vague idea of the fee simple title to, und 
value of, real estate. It afforded little security, however, against the 
wiles of the unscrupulous, and whenever the Indian could be in- 
duced by the urts of his " White Brother '' to put his nume to un 
instrument, the purport of which, in muny instunces, he did not ut 
ull understund us forever conveying uwuy his possessions, the rutify- 
ing signuture of the President followed us u mutter of depurtment 
routine. The greuter purt of the Pottuwutomie reservutions was 
i-etroceded to the United States in exchange either for annuities or 
for lands west of the Mississippi, and the title disposed of in this 
way. 

* Long's Second Expedition, vol. 1, p. 171. 

t The writer was informed of this agreement by Mary Baptiste. 



THE EXODUS. 149 

The final emigration of the Pottawatomies from the Wabash, 
undercharge of C'oL Pepper and Gen. Tipton, of Indiana, took place 
in the summer of 1888. Many are yet living who witnessed the 
sad exodus. The late Sanford Cox has recorded his impressions of 
this event in the valuable little book which he published.* '"Hearing 
that this large emigration, numbering nearly a thousand of all ages 
and sexes, would pass within eight or nine miles west of La Fayette, 
a few of us procured horses and rode over to see the retiring band, 
as they reluctantly wended their way toward the setting sun. It 
was, indeed, a mournful spectacle to see these children of the forest 
slowly retiring from the homes of their childhood, where were not 
only the graves of their loved ancestors but many endearing scenes 
to which their memories would ever recur as sunny spots along their 
pathway through the wilderness. They felt that they were bidding 
a last farewell to the hills, the valleys and the streams of theii- 
infancy : the more exciting hunting grounds of their advanced 
youth ; the stern and bloody battle-fields on which, in riper man- 
hood, they had received wounds, and where many of their friends 
and loved relatives had fallen, covered with gore and with glory. All 
these they were leaving behind, to be desecrated by the plowshare 
of the white man. As they cast mouniful glances back toward these 
loving scenes that were rapidly fading in the distance, tears fell from 
the cheek of the downcast warrior, — old men trembled, matrons wept, 
the swarthy maiden's cheek turned pale, and sighs and half-suppressed 
sobs escaped from the motley groups, as they passed along, some on 
foot, some on horseback, and others in wagons, sad as a funeral pro- 
cession. I saw several of the aged warriors glancing upward to the sky 
as if invoking aid from the spirits of their departed sires, who were 
looking down upon them with pity from the clouds, or as if they were 
calling upon the great spirit to redress the wrongs of the red man, 
whose broken bow had fallen from his hand. Ever and anon one 
of the throng would strike off from the procession into the woods 
and retrace his steps back to the old encampments on the Waba-sh, 
Ell Piver, or the Tippecanoe, declaring that he would die there 
rather than be banished from his country. Thus would scores leave 
the main party at different points on the journey and return to their 
former homes ; and it was several years before they could be induced 
to join their countrymen west of the Mississippi." 

This body, on their westward journey, passed through Danville, 
Illinois, where they halted several days, being in want of food. The 

* Recollections of the Early Settlement of the Wabash Valley, La Fayette, Ind., 
1860, pp. 154, 155. 



150 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST, 

commissary department was wretchedly supplied. The Indians 
beiTired for food at the houses of the citizens. Others, in their 
extremity, killed rats at the old mill on the J^orth Fork and ate 
them to appease their hunger. Without tents or other shelter, 
many of them, with young babes in their arms, walked on foot, as 
there was no adequate means of conveyance for the weak, the aged 
or infirm. Thus the mournful procession passed across the state of 
Illinois. 

The St. Joseph band were removed westward the same year. So 
strong was their attachment to southern Michigan and northern 
Indiana, that the Federal government invoked the aid of troops to 
coerce their removal. The soldiers surrounded them, and, as prison- 
ers of war, compelled them to leave. At South Bend. Indiana, was 
the village of CMchipe Oxdipe. The town was on a rising ground 
near four small lakes, and contained ten or twelve hundred christian- 
ized Pottawatomies. Benjamin M. Petit, the Catholic missionary in 
charge at Po-ke-ganns village on the St. Joseph, asked Bishop Brute 
for leave to accompany the Indians, but the prelate withheld his 
consent, not deeming it proper to give even an implied indorsement 
of the cruel act of the government. But being himself on tlieir 
route, he afterward consented. The power of religion then appeared. 
Amid tlieir sad march he confirmed several, while hymns and prayers, 
chanted in Ottawa^ echoed for the last time around their lakes. Sick 
and well were carried off alike. After giving all his Episcopal bless- 
ing. Bishop Brute proceeded with Petit to the tents of the sick, 
where they baptized one and confirmed another, both of whom ex- 
j)ired soon after. The march was resumed. The men, women and 
elder children, urged on by the soldiers in their I'ear, were followed 
with the wagons bearing the sick and dying, the mothers, little chil- 
dren and i)roperty. Thus they proceeded through the country, tur- 
bulent at that time on account of the Mormon war, to the Osage 
River, Missouri, where Mr. Petit confided the wretched exiles to the 
care of the Jesuit Father J. Hoecken.* 

In the year 1846 the difi:erent bands of Pottawatomies united on 
the west side of the Mississippi. A general treaty was made, in 
whicli tlie following clause occurs: "Whereas, the various bands of 
tlie Pottawatomie Indians, known as the (^hippeways, Ottawas and 
l^ottawatomies, the Pottawatomies of the Prairie, the Pottawatomies 
of the Wabash, and the Pottawatomies of Indiana, have, subsecjuent 
to the year 1820, entered into separate and distinct treaties with the 

* Extract from Shea's Catholic Missions, p. 397. 



THE POTTAWATOMIE NATION. 151 

United States, by wliieh tliev liave been vseparated and located 
in different countries, and ditticulties have arisen as to the proper 
distributions of tlie stipulations under various treaties, and being 
the same people bv kindred, by feeling and by hinguage, and 
having in former periods lived on and owned their lands in com- 
mon, and being desirous to unite in one common country and 
again become one people and receive their annuities and other 
benefits in common, and to abolish all mijior distinctions of bands 
by which they have heretofore been divided, and are anxious to 
be known as the Pottawatomie Xation, thereby reinstating tlie 
national character ; and whereas, the United States are also anxious 
to restore and concentrate said tribes to a state so desirable and 
necessary for the happiness of their people, as well as to enable 
the government to arrange and manage its intercourse with them ; 
now, therefore, the United States and said Indians do hereby agree 
that said people shall hereafter be known as a nation, to be called 
the Pottawatomie Xatiox."* 

Pursuant to the terms of this treaty, the Pottawatomies received 
^850,000, in consideration of which they released all lands owned 
by them within the limits of the territory of Iowa and on the Osage 
River in Missouri, or in any state or place whatsoever. Eighty- 
seven thousand dollars of the purchase money coining to them was 
paid, by cession fnnn the United States, of 576,000 acres of land 
Ivine: on both sides (jf the Kansas River. The tract embraces the 
finest body of land within the present state of Kansas, and Topeka, 
the state capital, has since been located nearly in the center of the 
reservation. AVhile the territory was going through the process of 
organization, adventurers trespassed upon the lands of the Potta- 
watomies, sold them whisky, and spread demoralization among 
them. The squatters who intruded upon the farmer-Indians killed 
their stock and burned some of their habitations, all of which was 
borne without retaliation. ^Notwithstanding the old hahendiLin clause 
inserted in Indian treaties (as a mere matter of form, as may be in- 
ferred from the little regard paid to it) that these lauds should inure 
to Pottawatomies, ''their heirs and assigns forever,""' the squatter 
sovereigns wanted them, and resorted to all the well-known methods 
in vogue on the border to make it unpleasant for the Indians, who 
were progressing with assured success from barbarism to the ways 
of civilized society. The usual result of dismemberment of the re- 
serve followed. The farmer-Indians, who so desired, had their por- 
tions of the reserve set oft* in severalty; the uncivilized members ot 
the tribe ha<l their proportion set off in common. These last, which 



152 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

were exclianged for money, or lands farther southward, fell into the 
])ossession of a needy railroad corporation. 

We gather from the several reports of the commissioners on In- 
dian affairs that, in 1863, the tribe numbered 2,274, inclusive of men, 
women and children, which was an alarming decrease since the cen- 
sus of 1S5-I-. The diminution was caused, ])robably, aside from the 
casualties of death, by some having returned to their foi-mcr homes 
east of the Missouri, while many of the young and wild men of the 
tribe w^ent to the buffalo grounds to enjoy the exciting and unre- 
strained freedom of the chase. The tarmers raised 3,720 bushels of 
wheat, 45,000 of corn, 1,200 of oats and 1,000 tons of hay, and had 
1,200 horses, 1,000 cattle and 2,000 hogs, as appears from the offi- 
cial report for 1S63. 

The Catholic school at St. Mary's enumerated an average of 
ninety-five boys and seventy-five girls in 1863, and in 1866 the total 
number was two hundred and forty scholars. Of his pupils the 
superintendent says: "They not only spell, read, write and cipher, 
but successfully master the various branches of geography, history, 
book-keeping, grammar, philosophy, logic, geometry and astronomy. 
Besides this, they are so docile, so willing to improve, that between 
school-hours they employ their time, with j^leasure, in learning 
whatever handiworh may be assigned to them ; and they particu- 
larly desii'c to become good farmers.''' The girls, in addition to 
their studies, are "trained to whatever is deemed useful to good 
housekeepers and accomplished mothers." 

The Pottawatomies attested their fidelity to the government by 
the volunteering of seventy-five of their young men in the "army 
of the Union." 

In 1867, out of a population of 2,400, 1,400 elected to become 
citizens of the United States, under an enabling act passed by con- 
gress. Of those who became citizens, some did well, others soon 
squandered their lands and joined the w^ild band. There are still 
a few left in Michigan, while about one hundred and eighty remain 
in Wisconsin. 



CHAPTER XVT. 



THE KICKAPOOS AND MASCOUTINS. 

The Kic'kti])(>os and Mascoutins, if there was more than a nominal 
difference between the two tribes, are here treated of together, for 
reasons explained farther on in the chapter. The name of the Kick- 
apoos has been written by the Frencli, " Kicapoux,'- '' Kickapous," 
*• Kikapoux,"* " Quickapous/' " Kickapoos,"' ^'Kikabu.'" This 
tribe has long been connected with the northwest, and have acquired 
a notoriety for the wars in which thev were engaged with other tribes, 
as well for their persistent hostility to the white race, which con- 
tinued uninterru])ted for inore tlum one hundred and fifty years. 
They were tirst noticed by Samuel Champlain, who, in 1612, dis- 
covered the ""Mascoutins residing near the place called Sakinam,'' 
meaning the country of the Sacs, comprising that part of the state 
of Michigan bordering (ui Lake Pluron, in the vicinity of Saginaw 
Bay.-^^- 

Father Claude Allouez visited the mixed village of Miamis, Ivick- 
apoos and Mascoutins on Fox River, Wisconsin, in the winter of 
1069-70. Leaving his canoe at the water's edge he walked a league 
over beautiful prairies and perceived the fort. The savages, having 
discovered him, raised the cry of alarm in their villages, and then 
ran out to receive the nussionary with honor, and conducted him to 
the lodge of the chief, where they regaled him with refreshments, 
and fui'ther honored him by greasing his feet and legs. Every one 
took their places, a dish was filled with powdered tobacco ; an old 
man arose to his feet, and, tilling his two hands with tobacco from 
the dish, addressed the nussionary thus : 

••This is well. Black-robe, that thou hast come to visit us ; have 
pity on us. Thou art a Manitou.f We give thee wherewith to 

* Memoir of Louis XIV, and Cobert, Minister of France, on the French Limits in 
North America: Paris Documents, voL 9, p. 378, and note by E. B. O'Callaghan, the 
editor, on p. 293. 

t Manitou, with very few changes in form of spelling or manner of pronunciation, 
is the word used almost universally by the Algonquin tribes to express a spirit or God 
having control of their destinies. Their Manitous were numerous. It was also an 
expression sometimes applied to the white people, — particularly the missionaries. At 
first they regarded the Europeans as spirits, or persons possessing superior intelligence 
to themselves. 



154 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

smoke. The Nacloiiessious and the Iroquois eat us up ; have pity 
on us. We often are sick, our chikiren die, we are hungry. Listen, 
my Maiiitou, I give thee wherewith to smoke, that the earth may 
yield us corn, that the rivers juay t'urnisli us with iisli, tliat sickness 
no more shall kill us, that famine no longer shall so harshly treat 
us." At each wish, the old men who were present answered by a 
great " O-oh ! "" '"^ 

The good father was shocked at this ceremony, and rei)lied that 
tliey should not address such re<|uests to him. Protesting that he 
could afford them no relief other than offering prayers to Ilim wdio 
was the only and true God, of whom he was only the servant and 
messenger, f 

Fatlier Allouez says in the same letter that four leagues from this 
vilhige "are the K'tkahou and Kitchigamick, who speak the same 
language with the Machkouteng.'' 

The Kickapoos were not inclined to receive religious impressions 
from the early missionaries. In fact, they appear to liave acquired 
their first notoriety in history by seizing Father Gabriel Ribourde, 
whom they "carried away and broke his head," as Tonti quaintly 
expresses it in referring to this ruthless murder. Again, in 1728, 
as Father Ignatius Guignas, compelled to abandon his mission among 
the Sioux, on account of the victory of the Foxes over the French, 
was attempting to reach the Illinois, he, too, fell into the hands of 
the Kickapoos and Mascoutins, and for five months was held a cap- 
tive and constantly exposed to death. During this time he was con- 
demned to be burnt, and was only saved through the friendly inter- 
vention of an old num in the tribe, who adopted him as a son. 
While held a prisoner, the missionaries from the Illinois relieved 
his necessities by sending timely supplies, which Father Guignas 
used to gain over the Indians. Having induced them to make 
peace, he w^as taken to the Illinois missions, and suffered to remain 
there on parole until November, 1729, when his old captors returned 
and took him back to their own country \\ after which nothing 
seems to have been known concerning the fate of this worthy mis- 
sionary. 

The Kickapoos early incurred the displeasure of the French by 

*The o-oh of the Algonquin and the yo-hah of the Iroquois (Colden's History of 
the Five Nations) is an expression of assent given by the hearers to the remarks of the 
speaker who is addressing them, and is equivalent to good or brarn! The Indians 
indulged in this kind of encouragement to their orators with great liberality, drawing 
out their o-ohs in unison and with a prolonged cry, especially when the speaker's 
utterances harmonized with their own sentiments. 

f.Tesuit Relations, 1669-70. 

i Shea's Catholic Missions, p. 379. 



MIGRATIONS OF THE KICKAPOOS. 155 

committing depredations scnitli of Detroit. A band living at tlie 
mouth of the Maumee River in 1712, with thirty Mascoutins, were 
about to make war upon the French. They took prisoner one 
Langlois, a messenger, on his return from the Miami country, 
wliither lie was bringing many letters from the Jesuit Fathers of the 
Illinois villages, and also dispatches from Louisiana. The letters and 
dispatches were destroyed, which gave much uneasiness to M. Du 
Boisson, the commandant at Detroit. A canoe laden with Kicka- 
poos, on their wav to the villages near Detroit, was cai)tured by the 
Hurons and Ottawas residing at these villages, and who were the 
allies of the French. Among the slain was the principal Kickapoo 
chief, whose head, with those of three others of the same tribe, 
were brought to De Boisson, who alleges that the Hurons and 
Ottawas committed this act out of resentment, because the previous 
winter the Kickapoos had taken some of the Hurons and Iroquois 
prisoners, and also because they considered the Kickapoo chief to 
be a ^Hrue Outtagamie''' : that is, they regarded him as one of the 
Fox nation.* 

From the village of Machkoutench, where first Father Claude 
Allouez. and afterward Father Marquette, found the Kickapoos inhab- 
iting the same village with the Muscotins and Miamis, the Kickapoos 
and the Muscotins appear to have passed to the south, extending 
their flanks to the right in the direction of Rockf River, and their 
left to the southern trend of Lake Michigan. Referring to the 
country on Fox River about Winnebago Lake, Father Charlevoix 
says::}: "All this country is extremely beautiful, and that which 
stretches to the southward as far as the river of the Illinois is still 
more so. It is, however, inhabited by two small nations only, who 
are the Kickapoos and the Mascoutins.*' Father Charlevoix,§ 
speaking of Fox River, says: ''The largest of these," referring to 
the streams that empty into the Illinois, "is called Pisttcoui, and 
proceeds from the fine country of the Mascoutins." | 

* Extract from M. Du Boisson's official report to the Marquis De Vaudreuil, gov- 
ernor-general of New France, of the siege of Detroit, dated June 15. 1712. This val- 
uable paper is published entire in vol. 3 of Wm. R. Smith's History of Wisconsin, 
a work that contains many important documents not otherwise accessible to the gen- 
eral public. Indeed, the publications of the Historical Society of Wisconsin, of which 
Judge Smith's two volumes are the beginning, are the repository of a fund of infor- 
mation of great utility, not only to the people of that state, but to the entire North- 
west. 

tRock River — Assiv-Sejie — was also called Kickapoo River, and so laid down on a 
map of La Salle's discoveries. 

t Narrative Journal, vol. 1, p. 287. 

SVol. 2, p. 199. 

II "The Fox Rivpr of the Illinois is called by the Indians Pish-fa-ko. It is the 
same mentioned by Charlevoix under the name of Pisticoui, and which flows as he, 



156 HISTORIC NOTES OK THE NORTHWEST. 

Prior to ITIS the Mascoiitiiis and Kickapoos had villages upon 
the banks of Rock River, Illinois. " l)oth these tribes together do 
not amount to two hundred men. They are a clever people and 
brave warriors. Their language and manners strongly resemble 
those of the Foxes. They are the same stocl'. They catch deer by 
chasing them, and even at this day make considerable use of bows 
and arn^ws.''* On a Frencli maj), issued in 1712, a village of Mas- 
coutins is located near the forks of the north and .south branches of 
Chicago River. 

From references given, it is apparent that this people, like the 
Miainis and Pottawatomies, were progressing south and eastward. 
This. movement was ])robably on account of the fierce Sioux, whose 
encroaching wars from the northwest were pressing them in this 
direction. Even before this date the Foxes, with Mascoutins and 
Kickapoos, wei*e meditating a migration to the Wabash as a place of 
security from the Sioux. This threatened exodus alarmed the French, 
who feared that the migrating tribes would be in a position on the 
Wabash to effect a junction with the Ii-oquois and English, which 
would be exceedingly detrimental to the French interests in the 
northwest. From an official document relative to the "occurrences 
in Canada, sent from Quebec to France in 1695, the Department at 
Paris is informed that the Sioux, who have mustered some two or 
three thousand warriors for the purpose, would come in large num- 
bers to seize their village. This has caused the outagamies to quit 
their country and disperse themselves for a season, and afterward 
return and save their harvest. They are then to retire toward the 
river Wabash to form a settlement, so mucli the more permanent, as 
they will be removed from the incursions of the Sioux, and in a 
position to effect a junction easily with the Iro(piois and the English 
without the French being able to prevent it. Should this project be 
realized, it is very apparent that the Mascoutins and Kickapcxjs will 
be of the i),irty, and that the three tribes, forming a new village of 
fourteen or fifteen hundred men, would experience no difiiculty in 
considerably increasing it by attracting other nations thither, which 
would be of most pernicious consequence. "+ That the Mascoutins, 
at least, did go soon after this date toward the lower Wabash is con- 
says, through the country of the Mascoutins." Long's Second Expedition, vol. 1, p. 
17G. The Algonquin word Pish-tah-te-koosh, according to Edwin .James' vocabulary, 
means an antelope. The Pottawatomies, from whom Major Long's party obtained the 
word Pish-ta-ko, may have used it to designate the same animal, judging from the 
similarity of the two words. 

* Memoir prepared in 1718 on the Indians between Lake Erie and the Missis- 
sippi: Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 889. 

t Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 619. 



OF THE NAMK M ASCOITIXS. 157 

chisivelv shown by the fact of their presence about Juchereau's 
trading post, wliich was erected neai- tlic inontli of the Oliio in tlie 
year 1700. 

It is doubtful if either the Foxes or the Kickapoos followed the 
Mascoutins to the Wabash country, and it is evident that the Mas- 
coutins who survived tlie epidemic that broke out among them at 
Juchereau's post on the Ohio soon returned to the north. The 
F'rench effected a conciliation with the Sioux, and for a number of 
years subsecpient to 1 "<•.") we lind the Mascoutins back again among 
the Foxes and Kickapoos upon their old hunting grounds in northern 
Illinois and southern Wisconsin. 

The Kicka})oos entered the plot of the Mascoutins to capture the 
])ost of Detroit in ITli?, and the latter had repaired to the neighbor- 
hood of Detroit, and were awaiting the arrival of the Kickapoos to 
execute their purposes, when they were attacked by the confedera- 
tion of Indians who were friendly toward the French and had hast- 
ened to the relief of the garrison.* 

The Mascoutins were called "Machkoutench,"t "Machkouteng," 
''Maskouteins " and "Masquitens," by French writers. The Eng- 
lish called them ' * Masquattimes, " :}: " Musquitons," § "Mascou- 
tins,"! and "Musquitos," a corruption used by the American colo- 
nial traders, and "Meadows," the English synonym for the French 
word " prairie."* 

The derivation of the name has been a subject of discussion. 
Father Marquette, with some others, following the example of the 
Hurons, rendered it ''fit'e-natlon^''' while Fathers Allouez and Char- 
levoix, wnth recent American authors, claim that the word sio-nilies 
a prairie, or '*a land bare of trees," such as that which this people 
inhabit.** The name is doubtless derived from mus-kor-tence^\^- or 
mus-ko-tifiy a prairie, a derivative from skoutay or scote^ the word for 
fire.:J::|: " The Mascos or Mascoutins were, by the French traders of a 
more recent day, called gens des prairies, and lived and hunted on 
the great prairies between the Wabash and Illinois Rivers. '"§«$ That 

* History of New France, vol. 5, p. 257. 

t Fathers Claude Allouez and Marquette. 

X George Croghan's Narrative Journal. 

S Minutes of the treaty at CTreenville in 1795. 

II Samuel R. Brown's Western Gazetteer. 

■fl It was some years after the conquest of the northwest from the French before 
the name " prairie" became naturalized, as it were, into the English language. 

** Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, vol. 1, p. 287. Father Allouez, in the Jesuit Re- 
lations between the years 1670 and 1671. 

ttNote of Callaghan: Paris Documents, vol. 10. 

XX Tanner, (Tallatin, Mackenzie and .lohnson's vocabularies of Algonquin words. 

S§ Manuscript account of this and other tribes, by Major Forsyth, quoted by Drake, 
in his Life of Black Hawk. 



158 HISTORIC NOTES OK THE NORTHWEST. 

the word Miiskotia is syiionymoiis with, and has tlie same nieaniiiij 
as, the word j)i-airie, is furtluT coiitiruu'd by the fact that the Indians 
prefixed it to the names ot' those animals and phmts found exehi- 
sively on the prairies. ■'■ 

Were the Kickapoos and Mascoutins separate tribes, or were they 
one and tlie same i These queries have elicited the attention of 
scholars well versed in the history of the North American Indians, 
among whom might be named Schoolcraft, Gallatin and Shea. 
Sufficient references have been given in this chapter to show that, 
by the French, the Kickapoos and Mascoutins were regarded as dis- 
tinct tribes. If necessary, additional extracts to the same purport 
could be produced from numerous French documents down to the 
close of the French colonial war, in 1703, all bearing uniform testi- 
mony upon this point. 

The theory has been advanced that the Mascoutins and Kickapoos 
were bands of one tribe, first known to the French by the former 
name, and subsequently to the English by the latter, under which 
name alone they figure in our later annals. + This supposition is at 
variance with English and American authorities. It was a war party 
of Kickapoos and Mascoutins, from their contiguous villages near 
Fort Ouitanon, on the Wabash, who captured George Croghan, the 
English plenipotentiary, below the mouth of that river in IJCio.'!!^ Sir 
William Johnson, the English colonial agent on Indian aftairs, in 
the classified list of Indians within his department, prepared in 1763, 
enumerates both the Kickapoos and Mascoutins, locating them ''in 
the neighborhood of the fort at Wawiaghta, and about the Wabash 
River."§ Captain Imlay, '•commissioner for laying out lands in the 
back settlements," — as the territory west of the Alleghanies was 
termed at that period, — in liis list of westward Indians, classifies the 
Kickapoos (under the name of Vermilions) and the Muscatines, lo- 
cating these two tribes between the Wabash and Illinois Rivers. This 
was in 1792.1 The distinction between these two tribes was main- 
tained still later, and down to a period subsequent to the year ISlfi. 
At that time the Mascoutins were residing on tlie west bank of the 
Wabash, between Yincennes and the Tippecanoe River, wliile their 
old neighbors, the Kickapoos, were living a short distance above 



*For example, miis-ko-fia-cliit-fa-ino, prairie squirrel; nnis-k'o-ti-pe-neeg, prairie 
tatoes. Edwin James' Catalof^ue of Plants and Animals found in the country of 

130. 



potatoes. Edwin James' Catalogue of Plants and Animals found in the country 
the Ojibbeways. See further references on page 35. 

fThe Indian Tribes of Wisconsin: Historical Collections of that State, vol. 3, p. 



± Vide his Narrative Journal. 

S Colonial History of New York. vol. 7: London Documents, p. 583. 

II Imlay's America, third edtion, London. 1797, p. 290. 



KICKAP008 AND MASCOUTINS ONE PEOPLP:. 159 

them ill several large villages. At this date the Kickapoos could 
raise four hundred warrioi-s.* From the authors cited, — and other 
references to the same effect would be produced but for want of space, 
— it is evident that the English and the Americans, eqmilly with the 
Frencli, regarded the Kickapoos and Mascoutins as separate bands 
or subdivisions of a tribe. 

While this was so, the language, manners and customs of the two 
tribes were not only similar, but the two tribes were almost invaria- 
bly found occupying continguous villages, and hunting in company 
with each other over the same country. "The Kickapoos are neigh- 
bors of the Mascoutins, and it seems that these two tribes have 
always been united in interests."! There is no instance recorded 
where they were ever arrayed against each other, nor of a time when 
they took opposite sides in any alliance with other tribes. Another 
noticeable fact is that, with but one exception, the Mascoutins were 
never known as such in any treaty with the United States, while the 
Kickapoos were parties to many. We have seen that the former 
were occupying the Wabash country in common with the latter as 
far back, at least, as 1765, when they captured Croghan, until 1816; 
and in all of the treaties for the extinguishment of the title of the 
several Indian tribes bordering on the Wabash and its tributaries, 
the Mascoutins are nowhere alluded to, while the Kickapoos are 
promiiu'iit parties to many treaties at which extensive tracts of coun- 
try were ceded. No man living, in his time, was better informed 
than Gen. Harrison, — who conducted these several treaties on behalf 
of the United States, — of the relations and distinctions, however 
trifling, that may have existed among the numerous Indian tribes 
with whom, in a long course of official capacity, he came in contact, 
either with the pen, around tlie friendly council-fire, or with the up- 
lifted sword upon the field of hostile encounter. In all his volumi- 
nous correspondence during the years when the northwest was com- 
mitted to his charge the General makes no mention of the Mascoutins 

* Western Gazetteer, by Samuel R. Brown, p. 71. This work of Mr. Brown's is 
exceedingly valuable for the amount of reliable information it affords not obtainable 
from any other source. He was with Gen. Harrison in the campaigns of the war of 
1812. In the preface to his Gazetteer he says: "Business and curiosity have made the 
writer acquainted with a large portion of the western country never before described. 
Where personal knowledge was wanting I have availed myself of the correspondence of 
many of the most intelligent gentlemen in the west." At the time Mr. Brown was compil- 
ing material for his Gazetteer, "the Harrison Purchase was being run out into townships 
and sections." and Mr. Brown came in contact with the surveyors doing the work, and 
derived nmch information from them. The book is carefully prepared, covering a 
topographical description of the country embraced, its towns, rivers, counties, popula- 
tion, Indian tribes, etc., and altogether is one of the most authentic and useful books 
relative to " the west," which was attracting the attention of emigrants at the time of 
its publication. 

t Charlevoix' Histoi-y of New France. 



160 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

by that namt\ but often refers to ''the Kickapoos of tlie prairies," 
to (listiii^uisli them from other bauds of the same ti-ibe who occupied 
viHaj^es in the timbered poi-tious of tlie Wabash and its tributaries.* 

At a .subsequent treaty of peace and friendshi}), concluded on the 
l2Tth of Se])tenibei". ISIT), between (jovernor Xinian Edwards, of 
Illinois Territory, and tlie chiefs, warriors, etc., of the Kickapoo 
nation, Was1i-e-ow)i, who at the treaty of Yincennes signed as a Mas- 
coutin, was a party to it, and in this instance signed as a Kickaj)oo. 
No Mascoutins by that name appear in tlie record of the treaty. f 

The preceding facts, negative and direct, admit of the following 
inferences : that there were two subdivisions of the same nation, 
known first to the French, then to the English, and more recently 
to the Americans, the one under the name of Kickapoos and the 
other as Mascoutines ; that they spoke the same language and ob- 
served the same customs ; that they were living near each other, 
and always had a community of interest in their wars, alliances and 
migrations ; and that since the United States have held dominion 
over the territory of the northwest the Kickapoos and Mascoutines 
have considered themselves as one and the same people, whose tri- 
bal relations were so nearly identical that, in all official transactions 
with the federal government, they were recognized only as Kicka- 
p<K)S. And is it not apparent, after all, that there was only a nom- 
inal distinction between these two tribes, or, rather, families of the 
same tribe i Were not the Mascoutiiis bands of the Kickapoos who 
dwelt exclusively on the prairies 'i It seems, from authorities cited, 
that this question admits of but one answer. 

The destruction that followed the attempt of the Mascoutins to 
capture Detroit was, perhaps, one of the most remorseless in which 
white men took a part of which w^e have an account in the annals of 
Indian warfare. As before stated, the Muscotins in 1712 laid siege 
to the Fort, hearing of which the Pottawatomies, with other tribes 
friendly to the French, collected in a large force for tlieir assistance. 

* The only treaty which the Mascoutins. as such, were parties to was the one 
concluded at Vincennes on the 27th of September, 1792, between the several Wabash 
tribes and Gen. Kufus Putnam, on behalf of the United States. Two Mascoutins 
signed this treaty, viz, Waush-eown and At-schat-schaw. Three Kickapoo chiefs also 
signed the parchment, viz, Me-an-ach-kab, Ma-en-a-pah and Mash-a-ras-a, the Black 
Elk, and, what is singular, this last person, although a Kickapoo, signs himself to the 
treaty as "The Chief of The Meadoirs.'' This treaty was only one of peace and friend- 
ship. The text of the treaty is found in the American State Papers, Indian Affairs, 
vol. 1, p. 388; in Judge Dillon's History of Indiana, edition of 1859, pp. 293, 294, and 
in the Western Annals, Pittsburg edition, pp. 603, 606. The names of the tribes and 
of the individual chiefs who participated in it ai-e not given in any of the works cited. 
They only appear in the copy on file at the War Department and in the original manu- 
script journal of Gen. Putnam. The author is indebted to Dr. Israel W. Andrews, 
president of Marietta College, for transcripts from Gen. Putnam's journal. 

t Treaties with the Indian Tribes, Washington edition, p. 172. 



IDENTITY OF KICK A POOS WITH THE MASCOUTIXS. 161 

The Muscotines, after prc^tracted efforts, abandoned the position in 
wliich they were attacked, and lied, closely pursued, to an intrenched 
position on Presque hle^ opposite Hog Island, near Lake St. Clair, 
some distance above the fort. Here they held out for four davs 
against the combined French and Indian forces. Their women and 
children were actually starving, numbers dying from humver every 
day. They sent messengers to the French officer, begging fur quar- 
ter, offering to surrender at discretion, only craving that their re- 
nuiining women and children and themselves might be spared the 
horror of a general massacre. The Indian allies of the French 
would submit to no such terms. '•"At the end of the fourth day, 
after fighting with much courage," says the French commander, 
"and not being able to resist further, the Muscotins surrendered at 
discretion to our people, who gave them no quarter. Our Indians 
lost sixty men, killed and wounded. The enemy lost a thousand 
souls — men, women and children. All our allies returned to our 
fort with their slaves (meaning the captives), and their amusement 
was to shoot four or five of them every day. The Hurons did not 
spare a single one of theirs.""^ 

"We find no instance in which the Kickapoos or Muscotins assisted 
either the French or the English in any of the intrigues or wars for 
the control of the fur trade, or the acquisition of disputed territory 
in the northwest. At the close of Pontiac's conspiracy, the Kicka- 
poos, whose temporary lodges were pitched on the prairie near Fort 
Wayne, notified Captain Morris, the English ambassador, on his 
way from Detroit to Fort Chartes, to take possession of "the coun- 
try of the Illinois"; that if the Miamis did not put him to death, 
they themselves would do so, should he attempt to pass their camp.f 

Still later, on the 8th of June, 17<)5, as George Croghan, likewise 
an English ambassador, on his route by the Ohio River to Fort 
Chartes, was attacked at daybreak, at the mouth of the Wabash, by 
a party of eighty Kickapoo and Mascoutin warriors, who had set out 
from Fort Ouiatanon to intercept his passage, and killed two of his 
men and three Indians, and wounded Croghan himself, and all the 
rest of his party except two white men and one Indian. They then 
made all of them prisoners, and plundered them of everything they 
had.+ 

* Official Report of M. Du Boisson on the Siege of Detroit. 

t Parkman's History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac, 3d single volume edition, p. 474. 

X The narrative, Journal of Col. George Croghan, "who was sent, at the peace 
of 1768, etc., to explore the country adjacent to the Ohio River, and to conciliate the 
Indian nations who had hitherto acted with the French." [Reprinted] from Feather- 
stonhaugh Am. Monthly Journal of Geology, Dec. 1831. Pamphlet, p. 17, 
11 



162 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

Having thrown such obstacles as were within their power against 
the French and English, the Kickapoos were ready to offer the 
same treatment to the Americans ; and, when Col. Eogers Clark 
was at Kaskaskia, in 1778, negotiating peace treaties with the west- 
ward Indians, his enemies found a party of young Kickapoos the 
willing instruments to undertake, for a reward promised, to kill him. 

As a military people, the Kickapoos were inferior to the Miamis, 
Delawares and Shawnees in movements requiring large bodies of 
men, but they were preeminent in predatory warfare. Parties con- 
sisting of from five to twenty persons were the usual number com- 
prising their war parties. These small forces would push out hun- 
dreds of miles from their villages, and swoop down u})on a feeble 
settlement, or an isolated pioneer cabin, and burn the property, kill 
the cattle, steal the horses, capture the women and children, and be 
off again before an alarm could be given of their approach. From 
such incursions of the Kickapoos the people of Kentucky suffered 
severely. * 

A small war party of these Indians hovered upon the skirts of 
Gen. Ilarmer's army when he was conducting the campaign against 
the upper Wabash tribes, in 1790. They cut out a squad of ten 
regular soldiers of Gen. Harmer by decoying them into an ambuscade. 
Jackson Johonnot, the orderly sergeant in command of the regulars, 
gave an interesting account of their capture and the killing of his 
companions, after they were subjected to the severest hunger and 
fatigue on the march, and the running of the gauntlet on reaching 
the Indian villages, f 

The Kickapoos were noted for their fondness of horses and their 
skill and daring in stealing them. They were so addicted to this 
practice that Joseph Brant, having been sent westward to the Mauniee 
River in 1788, in the interest of the United States, to bring about a 
reconciliation with the several tribes inhabiting the ]VIaumee and 
Wabash, wrote back that, in his opinion, "the Kickapoos, with the 
Shawnees and Miamis, were so much addicted to horse stealing that 
it would be difficult to break them of it, and as that kind of business 
was their best harvest, they would, of course, declare for war and 
decline giving up any of their country.":}: 

* One of the reasons urged to induce the building of a town at the falls of the 
Ohio was that it would atlbrd a means of strength against, and be an object of terror 
to, "our savage enemies, the Kickapoo Indians." Letter of Col. Williams, Januarj' 
3, 1776, from Boonsborough, to the proprietors of the grant, found in Sketches of the 
West, by James Hall. 

t Sketches of Western Adventure, by M'Lung, contains a summarized account, 
taken from Johonnot's original narrative, published at Keene, New Hampshire, 1816. 

t Stone's Life of Joseph Brant, vol. 2, p. 278. 



KICKAPOOS DESTROY THK ILLINOIS. lt;:{ 

Between the years 1780 and 17*J0, the Kickapoo war parties, from 
their vilLages on the Wabasli and Vermilion Rivers, kept the settle- 
ments in the vicinity of Kaskaskia in a state of continual alarm. 
Within the period named they killed and captured a number of 
men, women and children in that part of Illinois. Among their 
notable captures was that of William Biggs, whom they took across 
the prairies to their village on the west bank of the Wabash, above 
Attica, Indiana.* 

Subsequent to the close of the Pontiac war, the Ivickapoos, as- 
sisted by the Pottawatomies, almost annihilated the Kaskaskias at a 
place since called Battle Ground Creek, on the road leading from 
Kaskaskia to Shawneetown, and about twenty-five miles from the 
former place, f The Kaskaskias were shut up in the villages of 
Kaskaskia and Cahokia, and the Ivickapoos became the recognized 
proprietors of a large portion of the territory of the Kaskaskias on 
the west, and the hunting grounds of the Piankeshaw-Miamis on 
the east, of the dividing ridge between the Illinois and Wabash 
Kivers. The principal Kickapoo towns were on the left bank of the 
Illinois, near Peoria, and on the Yermilion, of the Wabash, and at 
several places on the west bank of the latter stream. :j; 

The Kickapoos of the prairie had villages west of Charleston, 
Illinois, about the head-waters of the Kaskaskia and in many of the 
groves scattered over the prairies between the Illinois and the Wa- 
bash and south of the Kankakee, notable among which were their 
towns at Elkhart Grove, on the Mackinaw, twelve miles north of 
Bloomington, and at Oliver's Grove, in Livingston county, Illinois. 

These people were much attached to the country along the Ver- 
milion Piver, and Gen. Harrison had great trouble in gaining their 
consent to cede it away. The Kickapoos valued it highly as a 
desirable home, and because of the minerals it was su^^posed to 
contain. In a letter, dated December 10, 1809, addressed to the 

* Biggs was a tall and handsome man. He had been one of Col. Clark's soldiers, 
and had settled near Belief ountaine. He was well versed in the Indians' ways and 
their language. The Kickapoos took a great fancy to him. They adopted him into their 
tribe, put him through a ridiculous ceremony which transformed him into a genuine 
Kickapoo, after which he was offered a handsome daughter of a Kickapoo brave for a 
wife. He declined all these flattering temptations, however, purchased his freedom 
through the agency of a Spanish trader at the Kickapoo village, and returned home to 
his family, going down the Wabash and Ohio and up the Mississippi in a canoe. His- 
torical Sketch of the Early Settlements in Illinois, etc., by John M. Peck, read before 
the Illinois State Lyceum, August 16, 1832. In 182(5, shortly before his death. Mr. 
Biggs published a narrative of his experience " while he was a prisoner with the Kick- 
apoo Indians." It was published in pamphlet form, with poor type, and on very com- 
mon paper, and contains twenty-three pages. 

t J. M. Peck's Historical Address. 

t Reynolds' Pioneer History of Illinoij, J. M. Peck's Address, and Gen. Harrison's 
Memoirs. 



164 HISTORIC NOTES ON TIIK NORTHWEST. 

Secretary <»f War, by Gen. Harrison, the latter, — referring to the 
treaty at Fort Wayne in connection witli liis efforts at that treaty to 
induce the Kickapoos to release their title to the tract of country 
bounded on the east by the Wabash, on the south by the northern 
line of the so-called Harrison Purchase, extending from opposite the 
mouth of Raccoon Creek, northwest fifteen miles; thence to a point 
on the Yermilion River, twenty -five miles in a direct line from its 
mouth; thence down the latter stream to its confluence, — says "he 
was extremely anxious that the extinguishment of title should extend 
as high up as the Vermilion River. This small tract [of about 
twenty miles square] is one of the most beautiful that can be con- 
ceived, and is, moreover, believed to contain a very rich copper 
mine. The Indians were so extremely jealous of any search being 
made for this mine that the traders were always cautioned not to 
approach the hills which were supposed to contain it."" 

In the desperate plans of Teeumseh and his brother, the Prophet, 
to unite all of the Indian ti'ibes in a war of extermination against 
the whites, the Kickapoos took an active part. Gen. Harrison made 
extraordinary efforts to avert the ti'oubles that culminated in the bat- 
tle of Tippecanoe. The Kickapoos were i^articularly uneasy; and 
in 1806 Gen. Harrison disjDatched Cajjt. Wm. Prince to the Yermil- 
ion towns with a speech addressed to all the chiefs and warriors of 
the Kickapoo tribe, giving Capt. Prince further instructions to pro- 
ceed to the villages in the prairies, if, after having delivered the 
speech at the A^ermilion towns, he discovered that there would be no 
danger in proceeding beyond. The speech, which was full of good 
words, had little effect, and- '' shortly after the nnssion of Capt. 

*Genei-al Harrison's Official Letter: American State Papers of Indian Affairs, vol. 
1, p. 726. It was not copper, but a mineral having something like the appearance of 
silver, that the Indians so jealously guarded. Recent explorations among the bluffs on 
the Little Vermilion have i-esulted in the discovery of a number of ancient smelting 
furnaces, with the charred coals and slag remaining in and about them. The furnaces 
are crude, consisting of shallow excavations of irregular shape in the hillsides. These 
basins, averaging a few feet across the top, were lined with fire-clay. The bottoms of 
the pits were connected by ducts or troughs, also made of fire-clay, leading into reser- 
voirs a little distance lower down the hillside, into which the metal could flow, when 
reduced to a liquid state, in the furnaces above. The pits were carefully filled with 
earth, and every precaution was taken to prevent their discovery, a slight depression in 
the surface of the ground being the only indication of their presence. The mines are 
from every appearance entitled to a claim of considerable antiquity, and are probably 
"the silver mines on the Wabash" that figure in the works of Hutchins, Imlay, and 
other early writers, as the geological formation of the country precludes there being 
any of the metals as high up or above "Ouiatanon," in the vicinity of which those 
authors, as well as other writers, have located these mines. The most plausible ex- 
planation of the use to which the metal was put is given by a half-breed Indian, 
whose ancestors lived in the vicinity and were in the secret that, after being smelted, 
the metal was sent to Montreal, where it was used as an alloy with silver, and con- 
verted into brooches, wristbaiids, and other like jewelry, and brought back by the 
traders and disposed of to the Indians. 



PA-KOI-SHEE-CAN. 165 

Prince, the Prophet found means to bring the whole of the Kicka- 
poos entirely under his influence. He prevailed on the warriors to 
reduce their old chief, Joseph Iiena)'d''s son^ to a private man. He 
would have been put to death but for the insignificance of his char- 
acter."* 

The Kickapoos fought in great numbers, and with frenzied cour- 
age, at the battle of Tippecanoe. Thej earlj sided with the British 
in the war that was declared between the United States and Great 
Britain the following June, and sent out numerous war parties that 
kept the settlements in Illinois and Indiana territories in constant 
peril, while other warriors represented their tribe in almost every 
battle fought on the western frontier during this war. 

As the Pottawatomies and other tribes friendly to the English 
laid siege to Fort Wayne, the Kickapoos, assisted by the Winneba- 
^oes, undertook the capture of Fort Harrison. They nearly suc- 
ceeded, and would have taken the fort but for one of the most he- 
roic and determined defenses under Capt. (afterward Gen.) Zachary 
Taylor. 

Capt. Taylor's official letter to Gen. Harrison, dated September 
10, 1S12, contains a graphic account of the aftair at Fort Harrison. 
The writer will here give the version of Pa-koi-shee-can, whom the 
French called La Far'me and the Americans The Flour., the Kicka- 
poo chief who planned the attack and personally executed the most 
difficult part of tlio programmer- 
First, the Indians loitered about the fort, having a few of their 
women and children about them, to induce a belief that their pres- 
ence was of a friendly character, while the main body of warriors 
were secreted at some distance off, waiting for favorable develojD- 
ments. Under the pretense of a want of provisions, the men and 

* Memoirs of Gen. Harrison, p. 85. A foot-note on the same page is as follows: 
* ' Old Joseph Renard was a very different character, a great warrior and perfectly sav- 
age — delighting in blood. He once told some of the inhabitants of Vincennes that 
he used to be much diverted at the different exclamations of the Americans and the 
French while the Indians were scalping them, the one exclaiming Oh Lord! oli Lord! 
oh Lord! — the otlier Mon Dieid moii Dieit! mon Dieii! " 

tThe account here given was narrated to the author by Mrs. Mary A. Baptiste, 
substantially as it was told to her by " I'a-koi-shee-can." This lady, with her hus- 
band, Christmas Dagney, was at Fort Harrison in 1821, where the latter was assisting 
in disbursing annuities to the assembled Indians. The business, and general spree 
which followed it, occupied two or three days. La Farine was present with his people 
to receive their share of annuities, and the old chief, having leisure, edified Mr. Dag- 
ney and his wife with a minute description of his attempt to capture the fort, pointing 
out the position of the attacking party and all the movements on the part of the 
Indians. La Farine was a large, fleshy man, well advanced in years and a thorough 
savage. As he related the story he warmed up and indulged in a great deal of pan- 
tomime, which gave force to, while it heightened the effect of, his narration. The 
particulars are given substantially as they were repeated to the author. The lady of 
whom he received it had never read an account of the engagement. 



1(36 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

women were "|)orniitte(I to approacli tlie fort, and had a chance to 
inspect the fort and its defenses, an opportunity of which the men 
fully availed themselves. A dark night, giving the appearance of 
rain, favored a plan which was at once put into execution. The 
warriors were called to the front, and the women and children 
retired to a place of safety. La Farine, with a large butcher knife 
in each hand, extended himself at full length upon the ground. He 
drove one knife into the ground and drew his body up against it, 
then he reached forward, with the knife in the other hand, and driv- 
ing that into the ground drew himself along. In this way he ap- 
proached the lower block-house, stealthily through the grass. He 
could hear the sentinels on their rounds within the fortified enclo- 
sure. As they advanced toward that part of the works where the 
lower block-house was situated. La Farine would lie still upon the 
ground, and when the sentinels made the turn and were moving in 
the opposite direction, he would again crawl nearer.* In this manner 
La Farine reached the very walls of the block-house. There was a 
crack between the logs of the block-house, and through this opening 
the Kickapoo placed a quantity of di-y grass, bits of wood, and 
other combustible material, brought in a blanket tied about his back, 
so as to form a sack. As the preparation for this incendiarism was 
in progress, the sentinels passed within a very few feet of the place, 
as they paced by on the opposite side of the block-house. Everything 
being in readiness, and the sentinels at the farther end of the works, 
La Farine struck a fire with his flint and thrust it between the logs, 
and threw his blanket quickly over the opening, to prevent the light 
from flashing outside, and giving the alarm before the building 
should, be well ablaze. When assured that the fire was well under 
way, he fell back and gave the signal, when the attack w^as immedi- 
ately begun by the Indians at the other extremity of the fort. The 
lower block-house burned up in spite of all the eflPorts of the gar- 
rison to put out the fire, and for awhile the Indians were exultant in 
the belief of an assured and complete victory. Gen. Taylor con- 
structed a barricade out of material taken from another building, 
and by the time the block-house burned the Indians discovered a 
new line of defenses, closing up the breach by which they expected 
to eflect an entrance, f 

* Capt. Taylor, being suspicious of mischief, took the precaution to order sentinels 
to make the rounds within the inclosure, as appears from his otiicial report. 

fThe Indians, exasperated by the failure of their attempt upon Fort Harrison, 
made an incursion to the Pi{?eon Roost Fork of White River, where they massacred 
twenty-one of the inhabitants, many of them women and children. The details of 
some of the barbarities committed on this incursion are too shocking to narrate. They 



TERRITORY OF THE KICKAPOOS. 167 

In 1819, at a treaty concluded at Edwardsville, Illinois, they 
ceded to the United States all of their lands. Their claim included 
the following territory: "Beginning on the Wabash River, at the 
upper point of their cession, made by the second article of their 
treaty at Yincennes on the 9th of December, 1809 ;* thence running 
northwestwardlyt to the dividing line between the states of Illinois 
and Indiana ;:}: thence along said line to the Kankakee River; thence 
with said river to the Illinois River ; thence down the latter to its 
mouth ; thence in a direct line to the northwest corner of the Vin- 
cennes tract, § and thence (north by a little east) with the western 
and northern boundaries of the cessions heretofore made by the 
Kickapoo tribe of Indians, to the beginning. Of which tract of land 
the said Kickapoo tribe claim a large portion by descent from their 
ancestors, and the balance by conquest from the Illinois Nation and 
uninterrupted possession for more than half a century."'' An exam- 
ination, extended through many volumes, leaves no doubt of the just 
claims of the Kickapoos to the teiTitory described, or the length of 
time it had been in their possession. 

With the close (jf the war of 1812, the Kickapoos ceased their 
active hostilities upon the whites, and within a few years afterward 
disposed of their lands in Illinois and Indiana, and, with the excep- 
tion of a few bands, went westward of the Mississippi. ''The 
Kickapoos," says ex-Gov. Reynolds, "disliked the United States so 
much that they decided, when they left Illinois that they would not 
reside within the limits of our government," but would settle in 
Texas. || A large body of them did go to Texas, and when the 

are given by Capt. M'AfFe in his History of the Late War in the Western Country, 
p. 155. The garrison at Fort Harrison was cut off from communication with Vincennes 
for several days, and reduced to great extremity for want of provisions. They were 
relieved by Col. Russell. After this officer had left the fort, on his return to Vincennes, 
he passed several wagons with provisions on their way up to the fort under an escort of 
thirteen men, commanded by Lieut. Fairbanks, of the regular army. This body of 
men were surprised and cut to pieces by the Indians, two or three only escaping, while 
the provisions and wagons fell into the hands of the savages. Vkle M'Atfe, p. 155. 

* At the mouth of Raccoon Creek, opposite Montezuma. 

t Following the northwestern line of the so-called Harrison Purchase. 

X The state line had not been run at this time, and when it was surveyed in 1821 
it was discovered to be several miles west of where it was generally supposed it would 
be. The territory of the Kickapoos extended nearly as far east as La Fayette, as is 
evident from the location of some of their villages. 

S By the terms of the fourth article of the treaty of Greenville the United States 
reserved a tract of land on both sides of the Wabash, above and below Vincennes, to 
cover the rights of the inhabitants of that village who had received grants from the 
French and British erovernments. In 1803, for the purpose of settling the limits of 
this tract. General Harrison, on the 7th of June, 1803, at Fort Wayne, concluded a 
treaty with the Miamis, Kickapoos, Shawnees, Pottawatomies and Delawares. This 
cession of land became known as the Vincennes tract, and its northwest corner extends 
some twelve miles into Illinois, crossing the Wabash at Palestine. 

II Pioneer History of Illinois, p. 8. 



168 HISTORIC XOTES ON TH li XORTH WEST. 

Lone Star Republic became one of the United States the Kickapoos 
retired to ]^e\v Mexico, and subsequently some of them went to Old 
Mexico. Here on these isolated borders the wild bands of Kicka- 
poos have for years maintained the reputation of their sires as a busy 
and turbulent people.* 

A mixed band of Kicka])oos and Pottawatomies, who resided on 
the Yermilion River and its tributaries, became christianized under 
the instructions of Ka-en-ne-kuck. This remarkable man, once a 
drunkard himself, reformed and became an exemplary christian, 
and commanded such influence over his band that they, too, became 
christians, abstained entirely from whisky, which had brought them 
to the verge of destruction, and gave up many of the other vices to 
which thev were previously addicted. Ka-en-ne-kuck had religious 
servi<jes every Sunday, and so conscientious were liis people that 
they abstained from labor and all frivolous pastimes on that day.f 

Ka-en-ne-kuck' s discourses were replete with religious thought, 
and advice given in accordance with the precepts of the Bible, and 
are more interesting because they were the utterances of an unedu- 
cated Indian, who is believed to have done more, in his sphere of 
action, in the cause of temperance and other moral reforms, than 
any other person has been able to accomplish among the Indians, 
although armed with all the power that education and talent could 
confer. 

Ka-en-ne-kuck' s band, numbering about two hundred persons, 
migrated to Kansas, and settled upon a reservation within the pres- 
ent limits of Jackson and Brown counties, where the survivors, and 
the immediate descendants of those who have since died, are now 
residing upon their farms. Their well-cultivated fields and their 
uniform good conduct attest the lasting effect of Ka-en-ne-kuck's 
teachings. 

The wild bands have always been troublesome upon the south- 
western borders, plundering upon all sides, making inroads into the 
settlements, killing stock and stealing horses. Every now and then 

* In 1854 a band of them were found by Col. Marcy, living near Fort Arbuckle. 
He says of them: "They are intelligent, active and brave; they frequently visit and 
traffic with the prairie Indians, and have no fear of meeting these people in battle, 
provided the odds are not more than six to one against them." Marcy 's Thirty Years 
of Army Life on the Border, p. 95. 

tOne of Ka-en-ne-kuck's sermons was delivered at Danville, Illinois, on the 17th 
of July, 1831, to his own tribe, and a large concourse of citizens who asked permission 
to be present. The sermon was delivered in the Kickapoo dialect, interpreted into 
English, sentence at a time as spoken by the orator, by Gurdeon S. Hubbard, who spoke 
the Kickapoo as well as the Pottawtitomie dialect with great fluency. The sermon was 
taken down in writing by Solomon Banta, a lawyer then living in Danville, and for- 
warded by him and Col. Hubbard to Judge James Hall, at Vandalia, Illinois, and pub- 
lished in the October number (1831) of his " Illinois Monthly Magazine." 



CHARACTERISTICS. 169 

their depredations form the subject of items for the current news- 
papers of the day. For years the government lias failed in efforts 
to induce the wild band to remove to some point within the Indian 
Territory, where they might be restrained from annoying the border 
settlements of Texas and New Mexico. Some years ago a part of 
the semi-civilized Kickapoos in Kansas, preferring their old wild 
life to the ways of civilized society, left Kansas and joined the bands 
to the southwest. These last, after twelve years' roving in quest of 
})lunder, were induced to retui-n, and in 1875 they were settled in 
till' Iiidiuii Territoi-y and su})plied with the necessary iiii})U'ments 
and prin'isions to enable them to go to work and earn an honest liv- 
ing;. In this commendable effort at reform thev are now makiny; 
very satisfactory progress.* In 1875 the number of civilized Kick- 
apoos within the Kansas agency was three hundred and eight-five, 
while the wild or Mexican band numbered four hundred and twenty, 
as appears from the official report on Indian affairs for that 3'ear. 

As compared with other Indians, the Kickapoos were industrious, 
intelligent, and cleaidy in their habits, and were better armed and 
clothed than the other tribes, f The men, as a rule, were tall, sin- 
ewy and active ; the women were lithe, aiul many of them by no 
means lacking in beauty. Their dialect was soft and liquid, as com- 
pared with the rough and guttural language of the Pottawatomies. :{; 
They kept aloof from the white people, as a rule, and in this way 
preserved their characteristics, and contracted fewer of the vices of 
the white man than other tribes. Their numbers were never great, 
as compared with the Miamis or Pottawatomies ; however, they 
made up for the deficiency in this respect by the energy of their 
movements. 

In language, manners and customs the Kickapoos bore a very 
close resemblance to the Sac and Fox Indians, whose allies they 
generally were, and with whom they have by some writers been 
confounded. 

* Report of Commissioner on Indian Affairs for the year 1875. 
t Reynolds' Pioneer History of Illinois. 
i Statement of Col. Hubbard to the writer. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE SHAWNEES AND DELA WARES. 

The Shawxees were a branch of the Algonquin family, and in 
manners and customs bore a strong resemblance to the Delawares. 
They were the Bedouins of the wilderness, and their wanderings 
form a notable instance in the history of the nomadic races of Xortli 
America. Before the arrival of the Europeans the Shawnees lived 
on the shores of the great lakes eastward of Cleveland. At that 
time the principal Iroquois villages were on the northern side of the 
lakes, above Montreal, and this tribe was under a species of subjec- 
tion to the Adirondacks, the original tribe from whence the several 
Algonquin tribes are alleged to have sprung, ■'■■ and made ''the plant- 
ing of corn their business." 

" The Adirondacks, however, valued themselves as delighting in 
a more manly employment, and despised the Iroquois in following 
a business which they thought only fit for women. But it once hap- 
pened that game failed the Adirondacks, which made them desire 
some of the young men of the Iroquois to assis t them in hunting. 
These young men soon became much more expert in hunting, and 
able to endure fatigues, than the Adirondacks expected or desired ; 
in short, they became jealous of them, and one night murdered all 
the young men they had with them.'' The chiefs of the Iroquois 
complained, but the Adirondacks treated their remonstrances with 
contempt, without being apprehensive of the resentment of the Iro- 
quois, "for they looked upon them as women." 

The Iroquois determined on revenge, and the Adirondacks, hear- 
ing of it, declared war. The Iroquois made but feeble resistance, 
and were forced to leave their country and fly to the south shores of 
the lakes, where they ever afterward lived. " Their chiefs, in order 
to raise their people's spirits, turned them against the Satanas, a less 
warlike nation, who then lived on the shoi-es of the lakes." The 
Irocjuois soon subdued the Satanas, and (h-ove them from their 
country, t 

* Adirondack is the Iroquois name for Algonquin. 

t Colden's History of the Five Nations, pp. 2'i. 23, The Shawnees were known to 
the Iroquois Ijy the name of Satanas. Same authority. 

no 



WANDERINGS OF THE SHAWNEES. 171 

In 1632 tlie Sliawnees were on the south side of the Delaware.* 
From this time tlie Iroquois pursued them, each year driving them 
farther southward. Forty years later they were on the Tennessee, 
and Father Manjuette, in speaking of them, calls them Chaouanons, 
which was the Illinois word for southerners, or people from the 
south, so termed because the}- lived to the south of the Illinois cantons. 
The Iroquois still waged war upon the Shawnees, driving them to the 
extremities mentioned in the extracts quoted from Father Marquette's 
journal, t To escape further molestation from the Iroquois, the Shaw- 
nees continued a more southern course, and some of their bands 
penetrated the extreme southern states. The Suwanee River, in 
Florida, derived its name from the fact that the Sliawnees once lived 
upon its banks. Black Hoof, the renowned chief of this tribe, was 
born in Florida, and informed Gen. Harrison, with whom for many 
years he was upon terms of intimacy, that he had often bathed in 
the sea. 

"It is well known that they were at a place which still bears 
their name:}; on the Ohio, a few miles below the mouth of the Wabash, 
some time before the commencement of the revolutionary war, where 
they remained before their removal to the Sciota, where they were 
found in the yea r 1TT4 by Gov. Dunmore. Their removal from 
Florida was a necessity, and their progress from thence a flight 
rather than a deliberate march. This is evident from their appear- 
ance when they presented themselves upon the Ohio and claimed 
protection of the Miamis. They are represented by the chiefs of the 
Miamis and Dclawares as supplicants for protection, not against the 
Iroquois, but against tlie Creeks and Seminoles, or some other south- 
ern tribe, who had driven them from Florida, and they are said to 
have been literally sans provant et sans culottes [hungry and naked]. § 

After their dispersion by the Iroquois, remnants of the tribe were 
found in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania, but after the 
return of the main body from the south, they became once more 
united, the Pennsylvania band leaving that colony about the same 
time that the Delawares did. During the forty years following that 
period, the whole tribe was in a state of perpetual war with America, 
either as British colonies or as independent states. By the treaty of 

* De Laet. 

t Vide p. 49 of this work. 

X Shawneetown, Illinois. 

§Gen. Harrison's Historical Address, pp. 30, 31. This history of the Shawnees, 
says Gen. Harrison, was Ijrought forward at a council at Vincennes in 1810, to resist 
the pretensions of Tecuniseh to an interference with the Miamis in the disposal of their 
lands, and however galling the reference to these facts must have been to Tecuniseh, 
he was unable to deny them. 



172 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

Greenville, they lost nearly all the territory they had been permitted 
to occupy north of the Ohio." 

In 1819 they were divided into four tribes, — the Pequa,+ the Me- 
quachake, the Chillicothe, and the Kiskapocoke. The latter tribe 
was tlie one to which Tecumseh belonged. They were always hos- 
tile to the United States, and joined every coalition against the gov- 
ernment. In 1806 they separated from the rest of the tribe, and 
took up their residence at Greenville. Soon afterward they I'emoved 
to their former place of residence on Tippecanoe Creek, Indiana.:}: 

At the close of Gen. Wayne's campaign, a large body of the 
Shawnees settled near Cape Girardeau, Missouri, upon a tract of 
land granted to them and the Delawares in 1793, by Baron de Ca- 
rondelet, governor of the Spanish provinces west of the Mississippi. § 

From their towns in eastern Ohio, the Shawnees spread north and 
westward to the headwaters of the Big and Little Miamis, the St. 
Mary's, and the x\u Glaize, and for quite a distance down the Mau- 
niee. They had extensive cultivated fields upon these streams, 
which, with their villages, were destroyed by Gen. Wayne on his 
return from the victorious engagement with the confederated tribes 
on the field of "fallen timbers. "|| Gen. Ilarmer, in his letter to 
the Secretary of War, communicating the details of his campaign 
on the Maumee, in October, 1790, gives a fine description of the 
country, and the location of the Shawnee, Delaware and Miami vil- 
lages, in the neighborhood of Fort Wayne, as they appeared at that 
early day. We quote: "The savages and traders (who were, perhaps, 
the worst savages of the two) had evacuated their towns, and burnt 
the principal village called the Omee^*\ together with all the traders' 
houses. This village lay on a pleasant point, formed by the junc- 
tion of the rivers Omee and St. Joseph. It was situate on the east 

* Gallatin. 

t " In ancient times they had a large fii"e, which, being burned down, a great puffing 
and blowing was heard among the ashes; they looked, and behold a man stood up 
from the ashes! hence the name Piqua — a man coming out of the ashes, or made of 
ashes." 

X Account of the Present State of the Indian Tribes Inhabiting Ohio : Archaeologia 
Americana, vol. 1, pp. 274, 275. Mr. Johnson is in error in locating this band upon 
the Tippecanoe. The prophets' town was upon the west bank of the Wabash, near the 
mouth of the Tippecanoe. 

§ Treaties with the Several Indian Tribes, etc.: Government edition, 1837. The 
Shawnees and Delawares relinquished their title to their Spanish grant by a treaty 
concluded between them and the United States on the 26th of October, 1832. 

II "The army returned to this place [Fort Defiance] on the 27th, by easy marches, 
laying waste to the villages and corn-fields for about fifty miles on each side of the 
Miami [Maumee]. There remains yet a great number of villages and a great quantity 
of corn to be consumed or destroyed upon the Au Glaize and Miami above this place, 
which will be effected in a few days." Gen. Wayne to the Secretary of War: Ameri- 
can State Papers on Indian Affairs, vol. 1, p. 491. 

ir The Miami village. 



COUNTRY OF THE SHAWNEES. 173 

bank of the latter, opposite the mouth of St. Mary, and had for a 
long time past been the rendezvous of a set of Indian desperadoes, 
who infested the settlements, and stained the Ohio and parts adjacent 
with the blood of defenseless inhabitants. This day we advanced 
nearly the same distance, and kept nearly the same course as yester- 
day ; we encamped within six miles of the object, and on Sunday, 
the ITth, entered the ruins of the Oniee town, or French village, as 
part of it is called. Appearances confirmed accounts I had received 
of the consternation into which the savages and their trading allies 
had been thrown by the approach of the army. Many valuables of 
the traders were destroyed in the confusion, and vast quantities of 
corn and other grain and vegetables were secreted in holes dug in 
the earth, and other hiding places. Colonel Hardin rejoined the 
army." 

'■'Besides the town of Oinee^ there were several other villages situ- 
ate upon the banks of three rivers. One of them, belonging to 
the Omee Indians, called Kegaiogue,* was standing and contained 
thirty houses on the bank opposite the principal village. Two others, 
consisting together of about forty-five houses, lay a few miles up 
the St. Mary's, and were inhabited by Delawares. Thirty-six houses 
occupied by other savages of this tribe formed another but scattered 
town, on the east bank of the St. Joseph, two or three miles north 
from the French village. About the same distance down the Omee 
River, lay the Shawnee town of Chillicotlie, consisting of fifty-eight 
houses, opposite which, on the other bank of the river, were sixteen 
more habitations, belonging to savages of the same nation. All 
these I ordered to be burnt during my stay there, together with 
great quantities of corn and vegetables hidden as at the principal 
village, in the earth and other places by the savages, who had aban- 
doned them. It is computed that there were no less than twenty 
thousand bushels of corn, in the ear, which the army either con- 
sumed or destroyed, "t 

The Shawnees also had a populous village within the present 
limits of Fountain county, Indiana, a few miles east of Attica. 
They gave their name to Shawnee Prairie and to a stream that dis- 
charges into the Wabash from the east, a short distance below Will- 
iamsport. 

* Ke-ki-ong-a. — "The name in Engrlish is said to signify a blackberry patch [more 
probably a blackberry bush] which, in its turn, passed among the Miamis as a symbol 
of antiquity." Brice's History of Fort Wayne, p. 23. 

fGen. Harmer's Official Letter. It will be observed that Gen. Harmer treats the 
French Omee or Miami village as a separate town from that of Ke-ki-ong-a. His de- 
scription is so minute, and his opportunities so favorable to know the facts, that there 
is scarcely a probability of his having been mistaken. 



174 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

In 1854 tlie Shawnees in Kansas nunibered nine hundred persons, 
occupying a reserv^ation of one million six hundred thousand acres. 
Tlieir lands were divided into severalty. They have banished 
whisky, and many of them have fine farms under cultivation. Be- 
inir on the border of Missouri, tliev suftered from the rebel raids, 
and particularly that of Gen. Price in 1864. In 1865 they numbered 
eight hundred and forty-five persons. They furnished for the Union 
army one hundred and twenty-five men. The Shawnees have illus- 
trated by their own conduct the capability of an Indian tribe to 
become civilized.* 

The Delawares called themselves Lenno Lenape^ which signifies 
"original" or "unmixed"" men. They were divided into three 
clans : the Turtle, the Wolf and the Turkey. When first met with 
by the Europeans, they occupied a district of country bounded 
eastwardly by the Hudson River and the Atlantic ; on the w^est 
their territories extended to the ridge separating the flow of the 
Delaware from the other streams emptying into the Susquehanna 
River and Chesapeake Bay.f 

They, according to their own traditions, "many hundred years 
ago resided in the western part of the continent ; thence by slow 
emigration, they at length reached the Alleghany River, so called 
from a nation of giants, the Allegewi, against whom the Delawares 
and Iroquois (the latter also emigrants from the west) carried on 
successful war ; and still proceeding eastward, settled on the Dela- 
ware, Hudson, Susquehanna and Potomac rivers, making the Dela- 
ware the center of their possessions.:}: 

By the other Algonquin tribes the Delawares were regarded with 
the utmost respect and veneration. They were called "fathers," 
"grandfiithers," etc. 

" When William Penn landed in Pennsylvania the Delawares had 
been subjugated and made women by the Iroquois." They were 
prohibited from making war, placed under the sovereignty of the 
Iroquois, and even lost the right of dominion to the lands which 
they had occupied for so many generations. Gov. Penn, in his treaty 
wuth the Delawares, purchased from them the right of j^ossession 
merely, and afterward obtained the relinquishment of the sovereignty 
from the Iroquois. § The Delawares accounted for their humiliating 
relation to the Iroquois by claiming that their assumption of the 
role of women, ov mediators, was entirely voluntary on their part. 

* Gale's Upper Mississippi. % Taylor's History of Ohio, p. 33. 

t Gallatin's Synopsis of the Indian Tribes, p. 44. ^Gallatin's Synopsis, etc. 



DELAWARES BECOME WOMEN'. 175 

They said thev became "peacemakers," not through compulsion, 
but in compliance with the intercession of difterent belligerent tribes, 
and that this position enabled their tribe to command the respect of 
all the Indians east of the Mississippi. While it is true that the 
Delawares were very generally recognized as mediators, they never 
in any war or treaty exerted an influence through the possession of 
this title. It was an empty honor, and no additional power or ben- 
efit ever accrued from it. That the degrading position of the Dela- 
wares was not voluntary is proven in a variety of ways. " We possess 
none of the details of the war waged against the Lenapes, but we 
know that it resulted in the entire submission of the latter, and that 
the Iroquois, to prevent any further interruption from the Delawares, 
adopted a plan to humble and degrade them, as novel as it was ef- 
fectual. Singular as it may seem, it is nevertheless true that the 
Lenapes, upon the dictation of the Iroquois, agreed to lay aside the 
character of warriors and assume that of women."* The Iroquois, 
while they were not present at the treaty of Greenville, took care to 
inform Gen. Wayne that the Delawares were their subjects — " that 
they had conquered them and put petticoats upon them." At a 
council held July 12, 17-12, at the house of the lieutenant-governor 
of Pennsylvania, where the subject of previous grants of land was 
under discussion, an Iroquois orator turned to the Delawares who 
were present at the council, and holding a belt of waumpum, ad- 
dressed them thus: "Cousins, let this belt of waumpum serve to 
chastise you. You ought to be taken by the hair of your head and 
shaked severely, till you recover your senses and become sober. . . . 
But how came you to take upon yourself to sell land at all ? " refer- 
ring to lands on the Delaware River, which the Delawares had sold 
some fifty years before. "We conquered you ; we made women of 
you. You know you are women, and can no more sell land than 
women ; nor is it fit you should have the power of selling lands, 
since you would abuse it." The Iroquois orator continues his chas- 
tisement of the Delawares, indulging in the most opprobrious lan- 
guage, and closed his speech by telling the Delawares to remove 
immediately. "We don't give you the liberty to think about it. 
You may return to the other side of the Delaware, where you came 
from ; but we don't know, considering how you had demeaned your- 
selves, whether you will be permitted to liye there. "+ 

The Quakers who settled Pennsylvania treated the Delawares in 

* Discourse of Gen. Harrison. 

t Minutes of the Conference at Philadelphia, in Colden's History of the Five 
Nations. 



176 HISTORIC NOTES OX THE NORTHWEST. 

accordance with the rules of justice and equity. The result was tliat 
during a period of sixty years peace and the utmost harmony pre- 
vailed. This is the only instance in the settling of America by the 
English where uninterrupted friendship and good will existed be- 
tween the colonists and the aboriginal inhabitants. Gradually and 
by peaceable means the Quakers obtained possession of the greater 
portion of their territory, and the Delawares were in the same situa- 
tion as other tribes, — without lands, without means of subsistence. 
They were threatened with starvation. Induced by these motives, 
some of them, between the years 1740 and 1750, obtained from their 
uncles, t he AVyandots, and with the assent of the Iroquois, a graii^; of 
land on the Muskingum, in Ohio. The greater part of the tribe re- 
mained in Pennsylvania, and becoming more and more dissatisfied 
with their lot, shook off the yoke of the Iroquois, joined the French 
and ravaged the frontiers of Pennsylvania. Peace was concluded at 
Easton in 1758, and ten years after the last remaining bands of the 
Delawares crossed the Alleghanies. Here, being removed from the 
influence of their dreaded masters, the Iroquois, the Delawares soon 
assumed their ancient independence. During the next four or five 
decades they were the most formidable of the western tribes. While 
the revolutionary war was in progress, as allies of the British, after 
its close, at the head of the northwestern confederacy of Indians, 
they fully regained their lost reputation. By their geographical 
position placed in the front of battle, they were, during those two 
wars, the most active and dangerous enemies of America.* 

The territory claimed by the Delawares subsequent to their being 
driven westward from their former possessions, is established in a 
paper addressed to congress May 10, 1779, from delegates assem- 
bled at Princeton, ^ew Jersey. The boundaries of their country, 
as declared in the address, is as follows: "From the mouth of the 
Alleghany Piver, at Fort Pitt, to the Yenango, and from thence up 
French Creek, and by Le Boeuf,f along the old road to Presque Isle, 
on the east. The Ohio River, including all the islands in it, from 
Fort Pitt to the Ouabache, on tJie south ; thence up the Piver Oua- 
baclie to that branch, Ope-co-mee-cah^X and up the same to the head 
thereof; from thence to the headwaters and springs of the Great 
Miami, or Rocky River ; thence across to the headwaters and springs 
of the most northwestern branches of the Scioto River ; thence to 

* In the battle of Fallen Timbers there were three hundred Delawares out of seven 
hundred Indians who were in this engagement: Colonial History of Massachusetts, 
vol. 10. 

t A fort on the present site of Waterford. Pa. 

X This was the name given by the Delawares to White River, Indiana. 



MAKE PEACE. 177 

the westernmost springs of Sandusky River ; thence clown said river, 
including the islands in it and in the little lake,-' to Lake Eric, on the 
west and northwest,, and Lake Erie on the north. Tliese boundaries 
contain the cessions of lands made to the Delaware nation by the 
Wayandots and other nations, f and the country we have seated our 
grandchildren, the Shawnecs, upon, in our laps ; and we promise to 
give to the United States of America such a part of the above 
described country as would be convenient to them and us, that they 
may have room for their children's children tq^set down upon.":}: 

After Wayne's victory the Delawares saw that further contests 
with the American colonies would be worse than useless. They 
submitted to the inevitable, acknowledged the supremacy of the 
Caucasian race, and desired to make peace with the victors. At the 
treaty of Greenville, in 1795, there were present three hundred and 
eighty-one Delawares, — a larger representation than that of any 
other Lidian tribe. By this treaty they ceded to the United States 
the greater part of the lands allotted to them by the Wyandots and 
L-oquois.^' For this cession they received an annuity of 8U000.§ 

At the close of the treaty, Bu-kon-ge-he-las, a Delaware chief, 
spoke as follows: 

Father : ' Your children all well understand the sense of the 
treaty which is now concluded. AVe experience daily proofs of your 
increasing kindness. I hope we may all have sense enough to enjoy 
our dawning happiness. Many of your people are yet among us. 
I trust they will be immediately restored. Last winter our king 
came forward to you with two; and when he returned with your 
speech to us, we immediately prepared to come forward with the 
remainder, which we delivered at Fort Defiance. All who know 
me know me to be a man and a warrior, and I now declare that I will 
for the future be as steady and true a friend to the United States as 
I have heretofore been an active enemy.'"* 

This promise of the orator was faithfully kept by his people. 
They evaded all the efforts of the Shawnee pro])]iet. Tecuniseh, and 
the British who endeavored to induce them, by threats or bribes, to 
violate it.** 

* Sandusky Bay. 

tThe Hurons and Iroquois. 

X Pioneer History, by S. P. Hildreth, p. 137, where the paper setting forth the 
claims of the Delawares is copied. 

S American State Papers: Indian Affairs, vol. 1. 

II Gen. Wayne. 

"i American State Papers: Indian Affairs, vol. 1, p. 582. 

** Bu-kon-ge-he-las was a warrior of great ability. He took a leading part in 
manoeuvering the Indians at the dreadful battle known as St. Clair's defeat. He rose 
from a private warrior to the head of his tribe. Until after Gen. Wayne's great victory 
12 



178 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE XORTHWESt. 

The Delawares remained faithful to the United States during the 
war of 1812, and, with the Shawnees, furnished some very able war- 
riors and scouts, who rendered valuable service to the United States 
during this war. 

After the treaty of Greenville, the great body of Delawares re- 
moved to their lands on White River, Indiana, whither some of 
their j)e()ple had already jirecedi'd them. 

Their manner of obtaining possession of their lands on White 
Iliver is thus related in Dawson's Life of Harrison: "The land in 
question had been granted to the Delawares about the year ITT*', by 
the Piankeshaws, on condition of their settling upon it and assist- 
ing them in a war with the Kickapoos. "' These terms were complied 
with, and the Delawares i-emaincd in possession of the land. 

The title to the tract of land lying between the Ohio and AVhite 
Rivers soon became a subject of dispute between the Piankeshaws 
and Delawares. A cliiet of the latter tribe, in 1803, at Yincennes, 
stated to Gen. Harrison that the land belonged to his tribe, '"and 
that he had with him a chief who had been present at the transfer 
made by the Piankeshaws to the Delawares, of all the country be- 
tween the Ohio and White Rivers more than thirty years previous.*' 
This claim was disputed by the Piankeshaws. They admitted that 
while they had granted the Delawares the right of occupancy, yet 
they had never conveyed the right of sovereignty to the tract in 
question. 

Gov. Plarrison, on the lOtli and 27tli of August, 1804, c<uicluded 
treaties with the Delawares and Piaid-ceshaws by which the United 
States acquired all that tine country between the Ohio and Wabash 
Rivers. Both of ''these tribes laying claim to the land, it became 

in 1794, he had been a devoted partisan of the British and a mortal foe to the United 
States. He was the most distinguished warrior in the Indian Confederacy: and as it 
was the British interests which had induced the Indians to commence, as well as to con- 
tinue, the war, Buck-on-ge-he-las relied upon British support and protection. This 
support had l^een given so far as relates to provisions, arms and ammunition; but 
at the end of the battle referred to, the gates of Fort Miamis, near which the action 
was fought, were shut, by the British within, against the wounded Indians after 
the battle. This opened the eyes of the Delaware warrior. He collected his braves 
in canoes, with the design of proceeding up the river, under a flag of truce, to Fort 
Wayne. On approaching the British fort he was requested to land. He did so, and 
addressing the liritish officer, said, " What have you to say to me?" The officer re- 
plied that the commandant wished to speak with him. "Then he may come here," 
was the chief's reply. " He will not do that," said the sub-officer; "and you will not 
be suffered to pass the fort if you do not comply." "What shall prevent me?" 
"These," said the officer, pointing to the cannon of the fort. "I fear not your 
cannon," replied the intrepid chief. "After suffering the Americans to insult and 
treat you with such contempt, without daring to fire upon tlit'tn, you cannot expect to 
frighten »ie/' Buck-on-ge-he-las then ordered his canoes to push off from the shore. 
and the fleet passed the fort without molestation. A note [No. 2J: Memoirs of Gen. 
Harrison. 



BECOME CITIZENS. 179 

necessary that botli should be satisfied, in order to prevent disputes 
in the future. In this, however, the governor succeeded, on terms, 
j)erhaps, more favorable than if the title liad been vested in only 
one of these tribes; for, as both claimed the land, the value of eacli 
claim was considerably^ h)wej*ed in t he estinuition of both ; and, 
therefore, by Judicious management, the governor eifected the pur- 
chase upon probably as low, if not lower, terms that if he had been 
obliged to treat with only one of them. For this tract the Pianke- 
shaws received $T<>0 in goods and $200 per annum for ten years; 
the compensation of the Delawares was an annuity of $300 for ten 
years. 

The Delawares continued to reside upon White River and its 
branches until 1819, when most of them joined the band who had 
emigrated to Missouri upon the tract of land granted jointly to them 
and the Shawnees, in 1793, by the Sj^anish authorities. Others of 
their number who remained scattered themselves among the Miamis, 
Pottawatomies and Kickapoos ; while still others, including the Mo- 
ravian converts, wentjto Canada, At that time, 1819, the total num- 
ber of those residing in Indiana was computed to be eight hundred 
souls.* 

In 1829 the majority of the nation were settled on the Kansas 
and Missouri rivers. They numbered about 1,000, were brave, en- 
terprising hunters, cultivated lands and were friendly to the whites. 
In 1853 they sold to the government all the lands granted them, ex- 
cepting a reservation in Kansas. During the late Rebellion the}- 
sent to the United States army one hundred and seventy out of their 
two hundred able-bodied men. Like their ancestors they proved 
valiant and trustworthy soldiers. Of late years they have almost 
entirely lost their aboriginal customs and manners. They live in 
houses, have schools and churches, cultivate farms, and, in fact, bid 
fair to become useful and prominent citizens of the great Republic. 

* Their principal towns were on the branches of White River, within the present 
limits of Madison and Delaware counties, and the capital of the latter is named after 
the "jW»;icv/" or " Mon-o-sia " band. Pijie Creek and Kill Buck Creek, branches of 
White River, are also named after two distinguished Delaware chiefs. 



CHAPTER XVTII 

THE INDIANS: THEIR IMPLEMENTS, UTENSILS, FORTIFICATIONS, 
MOUNDS, AND THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 

Before the arrival of the Eurojjeans the use of iron was but little 
known to the North American Indians. Marquette, in speaking of 
the Illinois, states that they were entirely ignorant of the use of iron 
tools, their weapons being made of stone.* This was true of all the 
Indians who made their homes north of the Ohio, but south of that 
stream metal tools were occasionally met with. "When Hernando 
De Soto, in 1539-43, was traversing the southern part of that terri- 
tory, now known as the United States, in his vain search for. gold, 
some of his followers found the natives on the Savanna River using 
hatchets made of copper. + It is evident that these hatchets were of 
native manulacture, for they were "said to have a mixture of gold," 

The southern Indians "had long bows, and their arrows were 
made of certain canes like reeds, very heavy, and so strong that a 
sharp cane passeth through a target. Some they arm in the point 
with a sharp bone of a lish, like a chisel, and in others they fasten 
certain stones like points of diamonds. ":|; Tliese bones or "scale 
of the armed fish" were neatly fastened to the head of the arrows 
with splits of cane and fish glue.§ The northern Indians used 
arrows with stone points. Father Rasles thus describes them: 
••Arrows are the principal arms which they use in war and in the 
chase. They are pointed at the end with a stone, cut and sharpened 
in the shape of a serpent's tongue ; and, if no knife is at hand, they 
use them also to skin the animals they have killed." || "The bow- 
strings were prepared from the entrails of a stag, or of a stag's skin, 
which they know how to dress as well as any man in France, and 
with as many diff'erent colors. They head their arrows with the teeth 
of fishes and stone, which they work very finely and handsomely. "^ 

* Sparks' Life of Marquette, p. 281. 

t A Narrative of the Expedition of Hernando De Soto, by a Gentleman of Elvas; 
published at Evora in 1557, and afterward translated and published in the second 
volume of the Historical Collections of Louisiana, p. 149. X Idem, p. 124. 

§ Du Pratz' History of Louisiana: English translation, vol. 2, pp. 223, 224. 

I Kip's Jesuit Missions, p. 39. 

•[History of the First Attempt of the French to Colonize Florida, in 1562, by Ren<'* 
Laudonnitre: published in Historical Collections of Louisiana and Florida, vol. 1, p. 170. 

180 



THEY USE STONE IMPLEMENTS. 181 

Most of the hatchets and knives of the northern Indians were 
likewise made of sharpened stones, ''which they fastened in a cleft 
piece of wood with leathern thongs."'" Their tomahawks were con- 
structed from stone, the horn of a stag, or ''from wood in the shape 
of a cutlass, and terminated by a large ball." The tomahawk was 
lield in one hand and a knife in the other. As soon as thev dealt a 
blow on the head of an enemy, thev immediately cut it round with 
the knife, and took off the scalp with extraordinary rapidity. + 

Du Pratz thus describes their method of felling trees with stone 
implements and with fire: "Cutting instruments are almost con- 
tinually wanted ; but as they had no iron, which of all metals is the 
most useful in human so(;iety, they were obliged, with infinite pains, 
to form hatchets out of large flints, by sharpening their thin edge, 
and making a lioh' through them for receiving the handle. To cut 
down trees with these axes would have been almost an impracticable 
work ; they were, therefore, obliged to light fires round the roots of 
them, and to cut away the charcoal as the fire eat into the tree. ■"■:{: 

Charlevoix makes a similar statement: "These people, before 
we })rovided them with hatchets and other instruments, were very 
much at a loss in felling their trees, and making them fit for such 
uses as they intended them for. They burned them near the root, 
and in order to split and cut them into proper lengths they made 
use of hatchets made of flint, which never broke, but which required 
a prodigious time to sharpen. In order to fix them in a shaft, they 
cut oft' the toj) of a young tree, making a slit in it, as if they were 
going to draft it, into which slit they inserted the head of the axe. 
The tree, growing together again in length of time, held the head 
of the hatchet so firm that it was impossible for it to get loose; 
they then cut the tree at the length they deemed sufficient for the 
liandle.^'^ 

When they were about to make wooden dishes, porringers or 
spoons, they cut the blocks of wood to the required shape with 
stone hatchets, hollowed them out with coals of fire, and polished 
them with beaver teeth. ! 

Early settlers in the neighborhood of Thorntown, Indiana, no- 
ticed that the Indians made their hominy-blocks in a sinular manner. 
Hound stones were heated and placed upon the blocks which were 
to be excavated. The charred wood was dug out with knives, and 

* Hennepin, vol. 2, p. 103. 

t Letter of Father Rasles in Kip's Jesuit Missions, p. 40. 

t Volume 2, p. 223. 

8 Narrative Journal, vol. 2, p. 126. 

II Hennepin, vol. 2. p. 103. 



182 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NOUTHWEST. 

then the surface was polished with stone iiuplements. These round 
stones were the common property of the tribe, and were used by 
individual families as occasion required." 

"They dug their ground with an instrument of w^ood, which was 
fashioned like a broad mattock, wherewith they dig their vines as in 
France ; they put two grains of nuiize together, "f 

For boiling their victuals they made use oi earthen kettles.:}; The 
kettle w-as held up by two crotches and a stick of wood laid across. 
The pot ladle, called by them niikoine, laid at the side.>J "In the 
north they often made use of wooden kettles, and made the water 
boil by throwing into it red hot pebbles. < )ur iron ])ots are esteemed 
by them as much more commodious than their own.^li 

That the Kortli American Indians not only used, but actually 
manufactured, pottery for various culinary and religious purposes 
admits of no argument. Hennepin renuirks : "Before the arrival 
of the Europeans in North America both the northern and southern 
savages made use of, and do to this day use, earthen pots, especially 
such as have no commerce with the Europeans, from whom they may 
procui'e kettles and other movables. "•[ M. Pouchot, who was ac- 
quainted with the manners and customs of the CJanadian Indians, 
states "that they formerly had usages and utensils to which they 
are now scarcely accustomed. T/tey made jyottery and drew lire from 
wood." ** 

In 1700, Father Gravier, in speaking of the Yazoos, says: "You 
see there in their cabins neither clothes, nor sacks, nor kettles, nor 
guns ; they carry all with them, and have no riches hut eartlien pots^ 
quite well made, especially little glazed jntchers^ as neat as you would 
see in France." tf The Illinois also occasionally used glazed pitch- 
ers. :{::}; The manufacturing of these earthen vessels was done by the 
women. §§ By the southern Indians the earthenware goods were 
used for religious as well as domestic purposes. Gravier noticed 
several in their temples, containing bones of departed warriors, 
ashes, etc. 

* Statements of early settlers. 

t Laudonniere. p. 174. 

X Hennepin, vol. 2, p. 105. 

S Pouchot's Memoirs, vol. 2, p. 186. 

II Charlevoix' Narrative .loiirnal, vol. 2. pp. 123, 124. 

"I Volume 2, pp. 102, 10;i This work was written in 1G97. 

** Pouchot's Memoirs, vol. 2, p. 219. 

ttGravier's Journal, published in Shea's Early Voyages Up and Down the Missis- 
sippi, p 135. 

XX Vide p. 109 of this work. 

S^ Gravier's Journal, published in Shea's Early Voyages Up and Down the Missis- 
sippi, p. 135; also, Du Pratz' History of Louisiana, vol. 2, p. 166. 



IXDIAX FORTH- ICATIOXS. 183 

The Anu'rican Indians, botli northern and southern, liad most of 
their vilhiges fortified either by wooden palisades, or earthen 
breastworks and palisades combined. De Soto, on the 19th of June, 
1541, entered the town of Pacaha,^^ which was very great, walled, 
and beset with towers, and many loopholes were in the towers and 
wall.f Charlevoix said: " The Indians are more skillful in erect- 
ing their fortifications than in building their houses. Here you see 
villages surrounded with good ])alisa(les and with rcMJoubts ; and 
they are very careful to lay in a proper })i'ovision of water and 
stones. These })alisades are double, arid even sometimes treble, 
and generally have battlements on the outer circumvallation. The 
piles, of which they are composed, are interwoven with branches of 
trees, without any void space between them. This sort of fortifica- 
tion was sufficient to sustain a long siege whilst the Indians were 
ignorant of the use of fire-arms. ■':{: 

La Hontan thus describes these palisaded towns : " Their villages 
are fortified with double palisadoes of very hardwood, which are 
as thick as one's thigh, and fifteen feet high, with little squares about 
the middle of eourtines."'§ 

These wooden fortifications were used to a comparatively late 
day. At the siege of Detroit, in 1712, the Foxes and Mascoutins 
resisted, in a wooden fort, for nineteen days, the attack of a much 
larger force of Frenchmen and Indians. In order to avoid the 
fire of the French, they dug ludes four or five feet deep in the bot- 
tom of their fort. 

The western Indians, in their fortifications, made use of both 
earth and wood. An early American author remarks: ''The re- 
mains of Indian fortifications seen throughout the western country, 
have given rise to strange conjectures, and have been supposed to 
a])pertain to a period extremely remote ; but it is a fact well known 
that in some of them the remains of palisadoes were found by the 
first settlers. "•[ AVhen Maj. Long's party, in 1S23, })assed through 
Fort Wayne, they in(juired of Metea, a celebrated Pottawatomie chief 
well versed in the lore of his tribe, whether he had ever heard of any 
tradition accounting for the erection of those ai'tificial mounds which 
are found scattered over the whole country. ''He immediately 
replied tliat they had been constructed hy the Indians as fortijica- 

* Probably in the limits of the present state of Arkansas. 

t Account by the Gentleman of Elvas, p. 172. 

t Narrative Journal, vol. 2, p. 128. 

S Vol. 2. p. 6. 

II Dubuisson's Official Report. 

*jf Views of Louisiana: Brackenridge, p. 14. 



184 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

tion.'< before the white nuiii hud eoiiie {uiioiig- them. He liad always 
heard this origin ascribed to them, and knew three of those con- 
strnctions which were su])posed to have been made by liis nation. 
One is at the fork of the Kankakee and the Des Phiines Rivers, a 
second on the Oliio, which, from his description, was siipjiosed to be 
at the mouth of the Muskingum. He visited it, but couhl not de- 
scribe the spot accurately, and a third, which lie had also seen, he 
stated to be on the head-waters of the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan. 
This latter place is about forty miles northwest of Fort Wayne."" 

One 'of the Miami chiefs, whom the traders named Le Gros, told 
Barron'" that '' he had heard that his father had fought with his tribe 
in one of the forts at Piqua, Ohio; that the fort had been erected 
by the Indians against tlie French, and that his father had been 
kilitMl dui-ing one of the assaults nuide upon it.^f 

While at Chicago, and "with a view to collect as much informa- 
tion as possible on the subject of Indian antiquities, we inquii-ed of 
Robinson ;{: whether any traditions on this subject were current 
among the Indians. He observed that these ancient fortifications 
v^'em a frequent suhject of conversation^ and especially those in the 
nature of excavations made in the ground. He had heard of one 
made by the Kickapoos and Fox Indians on the Sangamo River, a 
stream running into the Illinois. This fortification is distinguished 
by the name of Etnutael'. It is k'noicn to have served as an in- 
trenchnient to the Kickapoos and Foxes, who were met there and 
defeated by the Pottawatomies, the Ottawas and Chippeways. Xo 
date was assigned to this transaction. We understood that the Et- 
nataek was near the Kickapoo village on the Sangamo. "jj 

Near the dividing line between sections 4 and 5, townshij) 31 
north, of range 11 east, in Kankakee county, Illinois, on the i)rairie 
about a mile ab(^ve the mouth of Rock Creek, are some ancient 
mounds. "One is very lai-ge, being about one hundred feet base in 
diametei- and about twenty feet high, in a conic form, and is said tt> 
contain the remaiiis of two hundred Indians who were killed in the 
celebrated battle between the Illinois and Chij)])eways, Delawares 
and Shawnees ; and about two chains to the northeast, and the same 

* An Indian interpreter. 

t Long's Expedition to the Sources of the St. Peters, vol. 1. pp. 121, 122. 

t Robinson was a Pottawatomie halt-breed, of superior intelligence, and his state- 
ments can be relied upon. He died, only a few years ago, on the Au Sable Kiver. 

§ Long's Expedition, vol. 1, p. 121. This stream is laid down on .Joliet's map. pulj- 
lished in 1G81, as the Pierres Sanguines. In the early gazetteers it is called Sdiit/cnno: 
vide Beck's Illinois and Missouri Gazetteer, p. 154. Its signification in the I'ottawat- 
omie dialect is " a plenty to eat ": Early History of the West and Northwest, by S. R. 
Beggs, p. 157. This definition, however, is somewhat doulitful. 



INDIAN MOUNDS. 185 

distance to tlie nortliwest, are two other small mounds, which are 
said to contain the remains of the chiefs of the two parties. '^"^^ 

Uncorroborated Indian traditions are not entitled to any high 
degree of credibility, and these quoted are introduced to refute the 
often repeated assertion that the Indianii had no tradition concerning 
the origin of the mounds scattered through the western states, or 
that tliev sup{)osed them to have been erected by a race wlio occu- 
pied tlie continent anterior to themselves. 

These mounds were seldom or never used for religious purposes 
by the Algonquins or Iroquois, but Penicault states that when lie 
visited the Natchez Indians, in 1704, "the houses of the Sunsf are 
built on mounds, and are distinguished from c:ach other by their size. 
Tlu' mound ii})(>n which the house of the Great Chief, or Sun, is 
built is larger than the rest, and its sides are steeper. The temple in 
the village of the Great Sun is about thirty feet high and tbrtv-eight 
in circumference, with the walls eight feet thick and covered with a 
matting of canes, in which they keep up a perpetual fire.'':J: 

De Soto found the houses of the chiefs built on mounds of diifer- 
ent heights, according to their rank, and their villages fortified with 
palisades, or walls of earth, with gateways to go in and out. ^^ 

When Gravier, in 1700, visited the Yazoos, he noticed that their 
temple was raised on a mound of earth, jj He also, in speaking of 
the Ohio, states that "it is called by the Illinois and Oumiamis the 
river oi \\\q, Akansea ^ because the Akansea formerly dwelt on it."* 
The Akansea or Arkansas Indians possessed many traits and cus- 
toms in common with the Xatchez, having temples, pottery, etc. 
A still more important fact is noticed by Du Pratz, who was inti- 
mately acquainted with the Great Sun. lie says: "The temple is 
about thirty feet square, and stands on an artificial mound about 
eight feet high, by the side of a small river. The mound slopes 
insensibly from the main front, which is northward, but on the other 
sides it is somewhat steeper.""' 

According to their own traditions, the Natchez "were at one 

* Manuscript Kankakee Surveys, conducted by Dan W. Beckwith, deputy govern- 
ment surveyor, in 1834. Major Beckwith was intimately acquainted witli thePotta- 
watomies of the Kankakee, whose vilhiges were in the neigliborhood, and without 
doubt the account of these mounds incorporated in his Field Notes was communicated 
to him by them. 

t The chiefs of the Natches were so called because they were supposed to be the 
direct descendants of a man and woman, who, descending from the sun, were the tirst 
rulers of this people. 

X Annals of Louisiana: Historical Collections of Louisiana and Florida, new series, 
pp. 94. 95. 

S .Account by the Gentleman of Elvas. 

I Karly Voynges Up and Down the Mississippi, p. 136. 

IT Idem, p. 120. 



186 histokk; notes on the north\vi>t. 

time the most powerful nation in all North America, and were 
looked upon by the other nations as their superiors, and were, on 
that account, respected by them. Their territor}^ extended from 
the River Ihe7"oilh\ in Lou island, io the Wahashy-'' They had over 
five hundred suns, and, consequently, nearly that many villages. 
Their decline and retreat to the south was owing not to the superi- 
ority in arms of the less civilized surrounding tribes, but was due to 
the pride of their t)wn chiefs, who, to lend an imposing magnificence 
to their funeral rites, adopted the impolitic custom of having hun- 
dreds of their followers strangled at their pyre. Many of the 
mounds, scattered up and down valleys of the Wabash, Ohio and 
Mississipjn. while being the only, may be the time-defying monu- 
ments of the departed power and grandeur of these two tribes. 

The Indian manner of making a fire is thus related by Hennepin : 
"Their way of making a fire, which is new and unknown to us, is 
thus : they take a triangular piece of cedar wood of a foot and a half 
in length, wherein they bore some holes half through ; then they 
take a switch, or another small piece of hard wood, and with both 
their hands rub the strongest upon the weakest in the hole, which is 
made in the cedar, and while they^ are thus i-ubbing they let fall a 
sort of dust or powder, wdiicli turns into fire. This white dust they 
roll u|) in a |)ellet of herbs, dried in autumn, and rubbing them all 
together, and then blowing upon the dust that is in the pellets, the 
fire kindles in a moment, ""t 

The food of the Indians consisted of all the varieties of gam'e, 
fishes and wild fruits in the vicinity ; and they cultivated Indian 
corn, melons and squashes. From corn they made a ])re})aration 
called sagamite. They pulverized the corn, mixed it with water, 
and added a small pro[)ortion of ground gourds or beans. 

The clothiiiff of the northern Indians consisted onlv of the skins 
of wild animals, roughly [)repared for that ])ui"pose. Their southei'n 
l)r('thren were far in advance of tlieiii in this i-ospect. "Many of the 
women wore cloaks of the bark of the mulberry tree, or of the 
feathers of swans, turkies or Indian ducks. The bark they take from 
young mulberry shoots that rise from the roots of ti-ei's that liave 
been cut down. After it is dried in the sun they beat it to make all 
the woody parts fall off. and they give the threads that remain a 
second beating, after which they bk'acli them by ex})<)sing them to 
the dew. When they are well whitene(l they spin them about the 
coarseness of ])ack-thread, and weave them in the foHowing numner: 

* Du Pratz' History of Louisiana, vol. 2. p. 14G. t Ibid. vol. 2. p. 103. 



THEIR CANOES. 187 

They plant two stakes in the ground about a yard and a half asunder, 
and havinii- stretched a cord from the one to the other, they fasten 
their threads of ])ark double to this cord, and then interweave them 
in a curious manner into a ch^ak of about a yard square, with a 
wrought border round the edges.'"" 

The Indians had three varieties of canoes, elm-bark, birch-bark 
and pirogues. "Canoes of elm-bark were not used for long voyages, 
as they were very frail. When the Indians wish to make a canoe 
of elm-bark they select the trunk of a tree which is very smooth, at 
the time when the sap remains. They cut it around, above and 
below, about ten, twelve or fifteen feet apart, according to the num- 
ber of people which it is to carry. After having taken off the whole 
in one piece, they shave off the roughest of the bark, which they 
make the inside of the canoe. They make end ties of the thickness 
of a finger, and of sufficient length for the canoe, using young oak 
or any other flexible and strong wood, and fasten the two larger 
folds of the bark between these strips, spreading them apart with 
wooden bows, which are fastened in about two feet apart. They sew 
up the two ends of the bark with strips drawn from the inner bark 
of the elm, giving attention to raise up a little the two extremities, 
which they qaW jnnccs\ making a swell in the middle and a curve on 
the sides, to resist the wind. If there are any chinks, they sew them 
together with thongs and cover them with chewing-gum, which they 
crowd by heating it with a coal of fire. The bark is fastened to the 
wooden bows by wooden thongs. They add a mast, made of a piece 
of wood and cross-piece to serve as a yard, and their blankets serve 
them as sails. These canoes will carry from three to nine persons 
and all their equipage. They sit upon their heels, without moving, 
as do also their children, when they are in, from lear of losing their 
balance, when the whole machine would u])set. .But this very seldom 
happened, unless struck by a flaw of wind. They use these vessels 
particulai'ly in their war ]»arties. 

"The canoes made of birch bark were much more solid and more 
artistically constructed. The frames of these canoes are made of 
stri})s of cedar wood, which is very flexible, and which they render 
as thin as a side of a sword-scabbard, and three or four inches wide. 
They all touch one another, and come up to a point between the 
two end strips. This frame is covered with the bark of the birch tree, 
sewed together like skins, secured between the end stri])S and tied 

* Du Pratz. vol. 2, p. 231 ; also, Gravier's Voyagre. p. 134. The aborifrinal method of 
procuringr thread to sew together their garments made of skins has already been no- 
ticed in the description of the manners and customs of the Illinois. 



188 HISTORIC XOTKS OX THE XOIITHWEST. 

along the ribs with the inner bark of the roots of the cedar, as we 
twist wiUows around the hoops of a cask. All these seams are cov- 
ered with gum,* as is done with canoes of elm bark. They then 
put in cross-bars to hold it and to serve as seats, and a long pole, 
which they lay on from fore to aft in rough weather to prevent it 
from being broken by the shocks occasioned by pitching. They 
have with thoui three, six, twelve and even twenty-four places, which 
are designated as so many seats. The French are almost the only 
people who use these canoes for their long voyages. They will carry 
as much as three thousand pounds, "'f These were vessels in which 
the fur trade of the entire northwest has been carried on for so many 
years. They were very light, four men being able to carry the 
largest of them over })()rtages. At night they were unloaded, drawn 
u]>on the shore, turned over and served the savages or traders as 
huts. They could endure gales of wind that would play havoc with 
vessels of European manufacture. In calm water, the canoe men, 
in a sitting posture, used paddles ; in stemming currents, rising from 
their seats, they substituted poles for paddles, and in shooting 
rapids, they rested on their knees. 

Pirogues were the trunks of trees hollowed out and pointed at 
the extremities. A fire was started on the trunk, out of which the 
pirogue was to be constructed. The fire was kept within the desired 
limits by the dripping of water upon the edges of the trunk. As a 
part became charred, it was dug out with stone hatchets and the fire 
rekindled. This kind of canoes was especially- adaj^ted for the navi- 
gation of the Mississippi and Missouri ; the current of these streams 
carrying down trees, wdiicli formed snags, rendered their navigation 
by bark canoes exceedingly hazardous. It was probably owing to 
this reason, as well as because there were no birch trees in their 
country, that the Illinois and Miamis were not, as the Jesuits re- 
nuirked, "canoe nations;'' they used the awkward, heavy pirogue 
instead. 

Each nation was divided into villages. The Indian village, when 
unfortified, had its cabins scattered along the banks of a ri\er or the 

* " The small roots of the spruce tree afford the irattap with which the bark is 
sewed, and the gum of the pine h'ee supplies the place of tar and oakum. Bark, some 
spare wattap and gum are always carried in each canoe, for the repairs which fre- 
quently become necessary." ]l(Ie Henry's Travels. ]>. 14. 

tThe above extracts are taken from the Memoir Upon the Late War in North Amer- 
ica I^etween the French and English. 1755-1760. by M. I'ouchot; translated and edited 
by Franklin Hough, vol. 2, pp. 21(5. 217, 218. Pouchot was the commandant at Fort 
Niagara at the time of its surrender to the English. He was exceedingly well versed 
in all that pertained to Indian manners and customs, and his work received the indorse- 
ment of Marquis Vaudreuil, Governor of Canada. Of the translation, there were only 
two hundred copies printed. 



WIGWAMS. 189 

shores of «a hike, and often extended for tliree or four miles. Each 
cabin held the head of the family, the children, grandchildren, and 
often the brothers and sisters, so that a single cabin not unfrequently 
contained as many as sixty persons. Some of their cabins were in 
the form of elongated squares, of which the sides were not more 
than live or six feet high. They were made of bark, and the roof 
was prepared from the same material, having an opening in the top 
for the passage of smoke. At both ends of the cabin there were 
entrances. The fire was built under the hole in the roof, and there 
were as many fires as there were families. 

The beds were upon planks on the floor of the cabin, or upon 
simple hides, which they called apjncliimoiu placed along the parti- 
tions. The}' slept upon these skins, wrapped in their blankets, 
which, during the day, served them for clothing. Each one had 
his particular place. The man and wife crouched together, her 
back being against his body, their blankets passed around their 
heads and feet, so that they looked like a plate of ducks. '"■ These 
bark cabins were used by the Iroquois, and, indeed, by many Indian 
tribes who lived exclusively in the forests. 

The prairie Indians, who were unable to procure bark, generally 
made mats out of platted reeds or flags, and placed these mats around 
three or four poles tied together at the ends. They were, in form. 
round, and ternunated in a cone. These mats were sewed together 
witli so much skill that, when new, the rain could not penetrate 
them. This variety of cabins possessed the great advantage that, 
when they moved their place of residence, the mats of reeds were 
rolled up and carried along by the squaws. f 

"The nastiness of these cabins alone, and that infection which 
was a necessary consefpience of it, would have been to any one but 
an Indian a severe punishment. Having no wind()W\s, they were full 
of smoke, and in cold weather they were crowded with dogs. The 
Indians never changed their garments until they fell ofl' by their 
very rottenness. Being never washed, they were fairly alive with 
vermin. In summer the savages bathed every day, but immediately 
afterward rubbed themselves with oil and grease of a very rank 
smell. " In winter they remained unwashed, and it was impossible 
to enter their cabins without being jxHSoned with the stench."' 

All their food was vei"v ill-seasoned and insipid, ••and there ])re- 
vailed in all their repasts an uncleanliuess which })assed all concep- 

* Extract from Pouchot's Memoirs, pp. 185. 18C. 

t Letter of Father Marest, Kip's .Jesuit Missions, p. 199. 



190 ULSTOIUC NOTKS ON THK NOKTHWEST. 

tioii. Tlu'ro were very few animals wliicli did not feed cleaner."* 
Tliev never washed their wooden or bark dishes, nor their porringers 
and spoons. + In this connection William Biggs states: ''They:}: 
])lucked oil* a few of the largest feathers, then threw the duck, — 
feathei's, entrails and all, — into the sou})-kettle, and cooked it in that 
mannei"."-^ 

The Indians were cannibals, though hunnin flesh was only eaten 
iit war feasts. It was often the case that after a prisoner had been 
tortui'ed his body was thrown into "• the war-kettle." and his remains 
ji'reedilv devoured. This fact is unifoi'mlv asserted bv the early 
Fi'cnch wi'iters. Members of Major Long's party made especial 
in(|uiries at Fort Wayne concerning this subject, and were entirely 
convinced. They met persons who had attended the feasts, and saw 
Indians who acknowledged that they had participated in them. 
Joscjih Barron saw the Pottawatomies with hands and limbs, both 
of white men and Cherokees, which they were about to devour. 
Among some tribes cannibalism was universal, but it a])pears that 
among the Pottawatomies and Mianiis it was restricted to a frater- 
nity whose privilege and duty it was on all occasions to eat of the 
enemy's flesh; — at least one individual must be eaten. The flesh 
was sometimes dried and taken to the villages. [ 

The Indians had some peculiar funeral customs. Joutel thus 
records some <^f his observations: "They pay a respect to their 
dead, as appears by their special care of burying them, and even of 
])utting into lofty coftins the bodies of such as are considerable 
among them, as their chiefs and others, which is also practiced 
among the Accanceas, but they differ in this respect, that the Accan- 
ceas wec]) and make their com]daints for some days, whereas the- 
Shawnees and other people of the Illinois nation do just the con- 
trary, for when any of them die they wrap them up in skins and 
then jnit them into cofiins made of the bark oi' trees, then sing and 
dance about them for twenty-four hours. Those dancers take care 
to tie calabashes, or gourds, about their bodies, with some Indian 
corn in them, to rattle and make a noise, and some of theui have a 
drum, made of a great earthen jxd, on which they t'xtend a wild 
goat's skin, and beat thereon with one stick, like our tabors. During 
that rejoicing they threw their ])resents on the coftin, as bracelets, 

* Charlevoix' Narrative .lournal, vol. 2, pp. 132, 133. 

t For a full account of their lack of neatness in the culinary department, vuJe Hen- 
nepin, vol. 2, p. 120. 
X The Kickapoos. 

^ Narrative of William Biggs, p. 9. 
II Long's Expedition to the sources of the St. Peters, vol. 1, pp. 103-106. 



BUKIAL CEREMONIES. 191 

pendants or [)ieces of earthenware. Wlien the ceremony was over 
tliev buried the body, with a part of the |)resents, making choice of 
such as may be most pro])er for it. They also bury with it some 
store of Indian wlieat. witli <> pof to boil it in, for fear the dead per- 
son should be hungry on his long journey, and they re])eat the cere- 
mony at the year's end. A good number of presents still remaining, 
they divide them into several lots and play at a game called the stick 
to give them to the winner."* 

The Indian graves were made of a large size, and the whole of 
the inside lined with bark. On the bark was laid the corpse, accom- 
panied with axes, snow-shoes, kettle, common shoes, and, if a wo- 
man, carrying-belts and paddles. 

This was covered with bark, and at about two feet nearer the 
surface, logs were laid across, and these again covered with bark, so 
that the earth might by no means fall upon the corpse. f If the 
deceased, before his death, had so expressed his wish, a tree was 
hollowed out and the corpse deposited within. After the body had 
become entirely decomposed, the bones were often collected and 
buried in the earth. Many of these wooden sepulchres were dis- 
covered by the early settlers in Iroquois county, Illinois. Doubt- 
less they were the remains of Pottawatomies, who at that time re- 
sided there. 

After a death they took care to visit every place near their cabins, 
striking incessantly with rods and raising the most hideous cries, in 
ordei' to drive the souls to a distance, and to keep them from lurk- 
ing about their cabins. :|; 

The Indians believed that every animal contained a Manitou or 
God, and that these spirits could exert over them a beneficial or 
prejudicial influence. The rattlesnake was especially venerated by 
them. Henry relates an instance of this veneration. lie saw a 
snake, and procured his gun, with the intention of dispatching it. 
The Indians begged him to desist, and. "with their pipes and to- 
bacco-pouches in their hands. ap})roaclied the snake. They sur- 
rounded it, all addressing it by turns and calling it their <jrand- 
pilher^ but yet kept at some distance. During this part of the cer- 
emony, they filled their pipes, and each blew the smoke toward the 
snake, which, as it appeared to me, really received it with pleasure. 
In a word, after remaining coiled and receiving incense for the s])ace 
of half an hour, it stretched itself along the ground in visible good 

* .Touters Journal : Historical Collections of Louisiana, vol. 1. pp. 187, 188. 

t Extract from Henry's Travels, p. 150. 

I Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, vol. 2, p. 154. 



192 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

humor. The Indians f'olh)we(l it, and, still addressing it by the 
title of grandfather, beseeched it to take care of their families dur- 
ing their absence, and also to ojjen the hearts of tlie English, that 
that they might till their (the Indians') canoes with rum." This 
reverence of the Indians for the rattlesnake will account for the vast 
number of these reptiles met with by early settlers in localities fa- 
vorable foi- their increase and security. The clefts in the rocky 
cliffs below Niagara Falls were so infested with rattlesnakes that 
the Indians removed their village to a place of greater security. 

The Indians had several games, some of which have been already 
noticed. McCoy mentions a singular occurrence of this nature : "A 
Miami Indian had been stabbed with a knife, who lingered, and of 
whose recovery there was doubt. On the 12th of May a party I'c- 
solved to decide by a game of nwccasiu whether the man should live 
or die. In this game the pai'ty seat themselves upon the earth 
opposite to each other, while one holds a moccasin on the ground 
with one hand, and holds in the other a small ball ; the ball he 
affects to conceal in the moccasin, and does either insert it or not, as 
he shall choose, and then leaves the opposite ])arty to guess where 
the ball is. In order to deceive his antagonist, he incessantly utters 
a kind of a sing-song, which is repeated about thrice in a minute, 
and moving his hands in unison with the notes, brings one of them, 
at every repetition, to the mouth of the moccasin, as though he had 
that moment inserted the ball. One party played for the wounded 
man's recovery aiul the other for his death Two games were 
played, in both of which the side for recovery was triumphant, and 
so they concluded the man would not die of his wounds. " + 

The Indians had a most excellent knowledge of the topography 
of their country;, and they drew the most exact maps of the coun- 
tries they were ac(puiinted with. They set down the ti'ue north 
according to the ])olar star; the ports, harbors, rivers, ci'eeks, and 
coasts of the lakes ; roads, mountains, woods, marshes and meadows. 
They counted the distances by journeys and half-journeys, allowing 
to every journey five leagues. These maps were drawn upon birch 
bark.:{: "-Previous to General Brock's crossing over to Detroit, he 
asked Tecumseh what sort of a country he should have to pass 
through in case of his preceding farther. Tecumseh took a roll of 
elm bark, and extending it on the ground, by means of four stones, 
drew forth his scalping knife, and, with the point, etched upon the 

♦Alexander Henry's Travels, p. 176. 
t Baptist Missions, p. 98. 
tLaHontan, vol. 2, p. 13. 



MARRIAGE AND RELIGION. 195 

bark a plan of the country, its hills, woods, rivers, morasses, a plan 
which, if not as neat, was fully as accurate as if it had been made 
by a professional map-maker.* 

In marriage, they had no ceremony worth mentioning, the man 
and the woman agreeing that for so many bucks, beaver hides, or, 
in short, any valuables, she should be his wife. Of all the passions, 
the Indians were least influenced by love. Some authors claim that 
it had no existence, excepting, of course, mere lust, which is pos- 
sessed by all animals. "By women, beauty was commonly no mo- 
tive to marriage, the only inducement being the reward which she 
received. It was said that the women were purchased by the night, 
week, month or winter, so that they depended on fornication for a 
living; nor was it thought either a crime or shame, none being 
esteemed as prostitutes but such as were licentious without a re- 
ward, "t Polygamy was common, but was seldom practiced except 
by the chiefs. On the smallest offense husband and wife parted,^ 
she taking the domestic utensils and the childi*en of her sex. Chil- 
dren formed the onl}' bond of affection between the two sexes ; and 
of them, to the credit of the Indian be it said, they were very fond. 
They never chastised them, the only punishment being to dash, by 
the hand, water into the face of the refractory child. Joutel noticed 
this method of correction among the Illinois, and nearly a hundred 
years later Jones mentions the same custom as existing among the 
Shawnees.:}: 

The Algonquin tribes, differing in this respect from the southern 
Indians, had no especial religion. They believed in good and bad 
spirits, and thought it was only necessary to appease the wicked 
spirits, for the good ones "were all right anyway." These bad 
spirits were thought to occupy the bodies of animals, fishes and rep- 
tiles, to dwell in high mountains, gloomy caverns, dangerous whirl- 
pools, and all large bodies of water. This will account for the 
offerings of tobacco and other valuables which they made when 
passing such places. No ideas of morals or metaphysics ever en- 
tered the head of the Indians ; they believed what was told them 
upon those subjects, without having more than a vague impression 
of their meaning. Some of the Canadian Indians, in all sincerity, 
com])ared the Holy Trinity to a piece of pork. There they found 
the lean meat, the fat and the rind, three distinct parts that form. 

* James' Military Occurrences in the Late War Between Great Britain and the 
United States, vol. 1, pp. 291, 292. 

* Journal of Two Visits made to Some Nations West of the Ohio, by the Rev. 
David Jones: Sabin's reprint, p. 75. 

t Idem. 
13 



194 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

the same piece.''* Their ideas of heaven was a phice full of sen- 
sual enjoyments, and free from physical i)ains. Indeed, it is doubt- 
ful if, before their mythology was changed by the partial adoption 
of some of the doctrines of Christianity, they had any idea of sjnr- 
itual reward or punishment. 

Wampum, prior to and many years subsequent to the advent of 
the Europeans, was the circulating medium among the Xortli Ameri- 
can Indians. It is made out of a marine shell, or ])eriwinhle, some 
of which are white, others violet, verging toward black. They are 
pei'forated in the direction of the greater diameter, and are worked 
into two forms, strings and belts. The strings consist of cylinders 
strung without any order, one after another, on to a thread. Tlie 
belts are wide sashes in which the white and purple beads are 
arranged in rows and tied by little leathern strings, making a very 
j)retty tissue. Wampum belts are used in state affairs, and their 
length, width and color are in proportion to the importance of the 
affair being negotiated. They are wrought, sometimes, into figures 
of considerable beauty. 

These belts and strings of wampum are the universal agent w'ith 
the Indians, not only as money, jewelry or t)rnaments, but as annals 
and for registers to perpetuate treaties and compacts between indi-. 
viduals and nations. They are the inviolable and sacred pledges 
which guarantee messages, promises and treaties. As writing is 
not in use among them, they make a local memoir by means of 
these belts, each of which signify a particular affair or a circum- 
stance relating to it. The village chiefs are the custodians, and com- 
municate the affairs they perpetuate to the young people, who thus 
learn the history, treaties and engagements of their nation.! Belts 
are classified as message, road, peace or war belts. White signifies 
peace, as black does war. The color therefore at once indicates the 
intention of the person or tribe who sends or accepts a belt. ^ So 
general was the importance of the belt, that the French and English, 
and the Americans, even down as late as the treaty of Greenville, 
in 1795, used it in treating with the Indians.:}: 

* Pouchot's Memoir, vol. 2, p. 223. 

t The account given above is taken from a note of the editor of the documents 
relative to the Colonial History of New York, etc., vol. 9. Paris Documents, p. 556. 

JThe explanation here given will assist the reader to an understanding of the 
grave significance attached to the giving or i-eceiving of belts so frequently referred to 
in the course of this work. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



STONE IMPLEMENTS. 

The stone implements illustrated in this chapter are introduced 
as specimens of workmanship of the comparatively modern Indians, 
who lived and hunted in the localities where the specimens were 
found. The author is aware that similar implements have been 
illustrated and described in works which relate to an exclusively 
prehistoric race. Without entering into a discussion concerning the 
so-called "Mound Builders," that being a subject foreign to the 
scope of this work, it may be stated that some theorists have placed 
the epoch of the "prehistoric race" quite too far within the bounda- 
ries of well-established historical mention, and have assigned to the 
"Moujid Builders" remains and relics which were undoubtedly the 
handiwork of the modern American Indians.* 

Indeed many of the stone implements, also much of the pottery, 
and many of the so-called ancient mounds and excavations as well, 
found throughout the west, may be accounted for without going 
beyond the era of the Xorth American Indian in quest of an explana- 
tion. It is not at all intended here to question the fact of the exist- 
ence of the prehistoric race, or to deny that they have left more or 
less of their remains, but the line of demarkation between that race 

* Mr. H. N. Rust, of Chicago, in his extensive collection, has many implements 
similar to those attributed to prehistoric man, which he obtained from the Sioux Indi- 
ans of northwestern Dakota, with whom they were in daily use. Among his samples 
are large stone hammers with a groove around the head, and the handles nicely at- 
tached. The round stone, with flattened sides, generally regarded as a relic of a lost 
race, he found at the door of the lodges of the Sioux, with the little stone hammer, 
hooded with rawhide, to which the handle was fastened, with which bones, nuts and 
other hard substances were broken by the squaws or children as occasion required. 
The appearance of the larger disc, and the well-worn face of the hammer, indicate 
their long and constant use by this people. The round, egg-shaped stone, illustrated 
by Fig. 9. supposed to belong to the prehistoric age, Mr. Rust found in common use 
among this tribe. The manner of fastening the handle is illustrated in the cuts. Figs. 
9 and 36. The writer is indebted to Mr. Rust for favors conferred in the loan of imple- 
ments credited to his collection, as well, also, for his valuable aid in preparing the 
illustrated portion of this chapter. The other implements illustrated were selected 
from W. C. Beckwith's collection. The Indians informed Mr. Rust that these clubs 
(Figs. 8 and 9) were used to kill buffalo, or other animals that had been wounded; as 
implements of offense and defense in personal encounters ; as a walking-stick (the 
stone being u.sed as a handle) by the dandies of the tribe; and they were carried as a 
mace or badge of authority in the rites and ceremonies of the societies established 
among these Indians, which were similar in some respects to our fraternities. 



196 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

and the modern Indian cannot be traced with satisfaction until after 
large collections of the remains of both races shall have been secured 
and critically compared under all the light which a careful examina- 
tion of historical records \vi\\ shed upon this new and interesting 
field of inquiry. 

Stone implements are by no means peculiar to North America; 
they have been found all over the inhabitable world. Europe is 
especially prolific in such remains. While the material of which they 
are made varies according to the geological resources of the several 
countries in which they are found, there is a striking similarity in 
the shape, size and form of them all. At the present time like 
implements are in use among some of the South Sea Islanders, and 
by a few tribes of North American Indians living in remote sections, 
and enjojdng but a limited intercourse with the enlightened w^orld. 

The slone age marks an important epoch in the progress of races 
of men from the early stages of their existence toward a higher civ- 
ilization. After they had passed the stone age, and learned how to 
manipulate iron and other metals, their advance, as a general rule, 
has been more rapid. 

The implements here illustrated are specimens of some of the 
more prominent types of the vast number which have been found 
throughout the valleys of the Maumee, Wabash and Illinois Rivers, 
and the sections of country drained by their tributaries. They are 
picked up about the sites of old Indian villages, in localities where 
game was pursued, on the hillsides and in the ravines wdiere they 
have become exposed by the rains, and in the furrows turned up by 
the plowshare. They are the remains of the early occupants of the 
territory we have described, — testimonials alike of their necessities 
and their ingenuity, and were used by them until an acquaintance 
with the Europeans supplied them with weapons and utensils formed 
out of metals.* 

It will be observed from extracts found in the preceding chapter 
that our Indians made and used implements of copper and stone, 
manufactured pottery, some of which was glazed, wove cloth of fiber 
and also of wool, erected fortifications of wooden palisades, or of 
palisades and earth combined, to protect their villages from their 
enemies, excavated holes in the ground, which were used for defen- 

* It may be well to state in this connection that the implements illustrated in this 
work, except the handled club, Figs. 9 and 36, were not found in mounds or in their 
vicinity, but werejgathered upon or in the immediate neighborhood of places known to 
the early settlers as the sites of Piankeshaw, Miami, Pottawatomie and Kickapoo vil- 
lages, and in the same localities where have been found red-stone pipes of Indian make, 
knives, hatchets, gun-barrels, buckles, flints for old-fashioned fusees, brooches, wrist- 
bands, kettles, and other articles of European manufacture. 



STONE IMPLEMENTS. 



197 



«ive purposes, and erected mounds of earth, some of which were 
used for religious rites, and others as depositories for their dead. 
All these facts are well attested by early Spanish, Frencli and Amer- 
ican authors, who have recorded their observaticms while passing 
through the country. We have also seen in previous chapters that 
our "red men" cultivated corn and other products of the soil, and 
were as much an agricultural people as is claimed for the "Mound 
Builders." 

The specimens marked Figs. 1. 2 and 3 are samples of a lot of 
one hundred and sixteen pieces, found in 1878 in a "pocket" on 
Wm. Pogue's farm, a few miles southeast of Eossville, Yermilion 



Fig. 3=M. 




Vermilion county, 111. 



Vermilion county. 111. 



Vermilion county, 111. 



county, Illinois. Mr. Poguc had cleared off a piece of ground for- 
merly ])rairie, on which a grow^th of jack oak trees and underbrush 
had encroached since the early settlement of the county. This land 
had never been cultivated, and as it was being broken up, the plow- 
share ran into the "nest," and turned the implements to view. 
They were closely packed together, and buried about eight inches 
below the natural surface of the ground, which w^as level with the 
other parts of the field, and had no ai:)pearance of a mound, excava- 
tion, or any other artificial disturbance. Two of the implements, 
judging from their eroded fractures, were broken at the time they 



198 



HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 



were deposited, and one other was broken in two by the plow. The 
material of which they are composed is white chert. The samples 
illustrated are taken as an average, in size and shape, of the whole 
lot, the largest of which is 3| inches wide by 7 inches long, and the 
smallest 2 inches wide by nearly 4 inches in length. Some of them 
are nearly oval, others long and pointed at both ends, in others tlie 
"shoulders" are well defined, while, for the most part, they are 
broadly rounded at one end and pointed at the other. They are all 
in the rough, and no linished implement was found with or near them. 
Indeed the whole lot are apparently in an unfinished condition. 
With very little dressing they could be fashioned into, perfect im- 
l)lements, such as the "fleshers," "scrapers," "knives," "spear" 
and "arrow" heads described farther on. There are no quarries or 
deposits of flint of the kind known to exist within many miles of 
the locality where these implements were found. We can only con- 
jecture the uses for which they were designed. We can imagine the 
owner to have been a merchant or trader, who had dressed them 
down or procured them at the quarries in this condition, so they 
would be lighter to carry to the tribes on the prairies, where they 
could be perfected to suit the taste of the purchaser. We might 
further imagine that the implement merchant, threatened with some 
approaching danger, hid them where they were afterward found, and 
never returned. The eroded appearance of many of the "find" 
bear witness that the lot were buried a great many years ago.^^ 

Fig. 4 is an axe and hammer combined. 
The material is a fine-grained granite. The 
handle is attached with thongs of rawhide 
passed around the groove, or with a split stick 
or forked branch wythed around, and either 

kind of fasteninfii: could be ti<>:litened bv driv- Tf^WtSi,''"''''''''''^'''^^'^^!^ 
ing a wedge between the attacliment and the 
surface of the implement, which on the back 
is slightly concaved to hold the wedge in 
place. , 

Figs. 5, 6 and 7 are also axes ; material, 
dark granite. Heretofore it has been the 
popular opinion that these instruments are 'Vermilion county. 111. 
"fleshers," and were used in skinning animals, cutting up the flesh, 

*The writer has divided the " lot," sending samples to the Historical Societies of 
Wisconsin and Chicago, and placed others in the collections of H. N. Rust, of Chicago; 
Prof. John CoUett, of Indianapolis; Prof. A. H. Worthen. Springfield, Illinois; .fose- 
phus Collett, of Terre Haute, while the others remain in the collection of W. C. Beck- 
with, at Danville, Illinois. 



Fin. 4 = J 




STONE IMPLEMENTS. 



199 



and for scraping hides when ])reparing them for tanning. The re- 
cent discoveries of remains of the ancient "Lake Dwellers," of 
Switzerland, have resulted in finding similar implements attached to 
handles, making them a very formidable battle-axe. 



Fig. 5=U 



Fig. G=3^. 





J 

Vermilion county, III. Vermilion co., 111. (H. N. Rust's Collection.) 

From the im})lements obtained by Mr. Rust of the Sioux it can 
readily be seen how implements like Fig. 6, although tapering 
from the bit to the top, could be attached to handles by means of a 
rawhide band. Before fastening on the handle the rawhide w^ould 
be soaked in water, and on drying would tighten to the roughened 
surface of the stone with a secure grip. A blow given with the cut- 
ting edge of this implement would tend to w^edge it the more firmly 
into the handle.* 



* In the Fifth Annual Report of the Regents of the University of New York 
(Albany. 1852. page 105), Mr. L. H. Morgan illustrates the ga-ne-(t-ga-o-diis-ha, or war 
club, used by " the Iroquois at the period of their discovery." The helve is a crooked 
piece of wood, with a chisel-shaped bit formed out of deer's horn — shaped like Fig. 
No. 7, on the next page — inserted at the elbow, near the larger end; and m many 
respects it resembles the clubs illustrated m Plate X, vol. 2, of Dr. Keller's work on 
the " Lake Dwelhngs of Switzerland and other parts of Europe." Mr. Morgan remarks 
that "in later times a piece of steel was substituted for the deer horn, thus maknig> 
it a more deadly weapon than formerly." There is little doubt that the Indians 
used such implements as Figs. 5, 6 and 7 for sphttmg wood and various other pur- 
poses. The fact of their being used for splitting wood was mentioned by Father 
Charlevoix over a hundred and fifty years ago, as appears from extracts on page 181 of 
this book, quoted from his Narrative Journal. 



200 



iriSTOKIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 



Fig. 7=}4. 



Fig. 7 is another style of axe. The mate- 
rial out of which it is composed is greenstone, 
admitting of a fine polish. There would be no 
ditficulty at all in shrinking a rawhide band to 
its surface, and the somewhat polished condi- 
tion of its sides above the "bit" would indi- 
cate a long application of this kind of a fasten- 
ing. It could also be used as a chisel in exca- 
vating the charred surface of wood that was 
being fashioned into canoes, mortars for crack- 
ing corn, or in the construction of other domes- 
tic utensils. 

Fig. 8 is a club or hammer, or both. Its 
iiuxterial is dark quartz. Some varieties of this 
implement have a groove cut around the cen- 
ter, like Fig. 9. The manner of handling it in- 
volves the use of rawhide, and, with some, is 
performed substantially in the same manner as 
in Figs. 5, 6 and Y, except that the band of rawhide is broader, 
and extends some distance on either side of the lesser diameter 




Vermilion countyjll. 



Fig. 8: 



Fig. 3G. 






':ii^ 




Vermilion coiintv. Til. 
'{H. N. Rust's Collection.) 



Dakota. 
(H. N. Rusfs Collection.) 



of the stone. In other instances they are secured in a hood of 
rawhide that envelops nearly the whole implement, leaving the 
point or one end of the stone slightly exposed, as in Fig. SO.'--' 

*Mr. Rust has in his collection a number of such implements, some of them 
weig'hing several pounds, which, along with the ones illustrated, were obtained by him 
from the Sionx of northwest Dakota, and which are "hooded" in the manner here 
<lescribed. Mr. Wm. Gurley. of Danville, Illinois, while in southwestern Colorado in 
1876, saw many such clubs in use by the L'te Indians. They were entirely encased 
in rawhide, having short handles. The handles were encased in the rawhide that 
•extended continuously, enveloping both the handle and the stone. The Utes used these 
Emblements as hammers in crushing corn, etc., the rawhide covering of some being 
woii-« through from long use, and exposing the stone. 



IMPLEMENTS FOR DESTKUCTIVE PURPOSES. 



201 



Fig. 9 was obtained from the Sioux by Mr. Rust. The stone is 
composed of semi-transparent quartz. Its uses have ah-eady been 
•described. 



Fig. 9. 




Northwest Dakota (H. N. Rust's Collection) 



FiiTs. 10 and 11 were probably used as spear-heads, they are 

certainly too large for arrow-heads, and too thick and roundish 

to answer the purpose of knives. The 

material is white chert. The edges of Fig. 11=M- 

both these implements are spiral, the 

"wind" of the opposite edges being 

quite uniform. Whether this was owing 



Fig. 10=1^. 




to the design of the maker or the twist 
in the grain of the chert, from which 
they are made, is a conjecture at best. 

Fig. 12=1^. 



'fi 




r?i 



Vennilion county 



Vermilion 
county, 111. 



Vermilion county. 



Fig. 12 was probably a spear or knife. 
The material is dark flint. A piece of 
([uartz is impacted in the upper half of 
the blade, the chipping through of which 
111. displays the skill of the person who made 

it. The shoulders of tlie implement are unequal, and the angle of 
its edges are not uniform. It is flatter upon one side than upon 
the other. These irregularities would throw it out of balance, and 
seemingly preclude its use as an arrow, while its strong shank and 
deep yokes above the shoulder would admit of its being flrmly 
secured to a handle. 

Fig. 13 was probablv intended for an arrow-head, and thrown 
aside because of a flaw on the surface opposite that shown in the cut. 



202 



HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 



It is introduced to illustrate the manner in which the work Fig.13=J^, 
progresses in making such implements. From an exam- 
ination it would appear that the outline of the implement 
is first made. After this, one side is reduced to the re- 
quired form. Then work on the opposite side begins, the 
point and edges being first reduced. The fiakes are 
chipped oflp from the edges upward toward the center of 
and against the part of the stone to be cut away. In this 
manner the delicate point and completed edges are pre- 
served while the implement is being perfected, leaving the shoulders, 
neck and shank the last to be finished. 

Fig. 14 is formed out of dark-colored, hard, fine-grained flint. Its 
edges are a uniform spiral, making nearly a half-turn from shoulder 




Vermilion 
CO., Til. 



FKi.l4r=i^ 



Fig. 15 = 1^ 



Fig. 10 = 1^ 






mil ion county, 



Vermilion county. 111. 
(H. N. Rust's Collection.) 



Vermilion county, 111. 



to point. It is neatly balanced, and if used as an arrow-head its wind 
or twist would, without doubt, give a rotary motion to the shaft in 
its fliglit. It is very ingeniously made, and its delicately chipped 
surface shows that the num who made the implement intentionally 
gave it the peculiar shape it possesses. 

Fig. 15 is made out of fine-grained blue flint. It is unusually long 
in proportion to its breadth. Its edges are neatly beveled from a 
line along its center, and are quite sharp. Its well defined shoulders 
and head, with the yoke deeply cut between to hold the thong, would 
indicate its use as an arrow-point. 



ARROW HEADS. 



203 



Fig. 16 is a perfect implement, and its surfaces are smoother than 
the observer might infer from the illustration. Its edges are very 
sharp and smooth and parallel to the axis of the implement. Its 
head, unlike that of the other implements illustrated, is round and 
pointed, with cutting edges as carefully formed as any part of the 
blade. It has no yoked neck in which to bury a thong or thread, 
and there seems to be no way of fastening it into a shaft or handle. 
It may be a perfect instrument without the addition of either. It is 
made out of blue flint. 

ARROW HEADS. 

Several diiFerent forms of implements (commonly recognized as 
arrow heads) are illustrated, to show some of the more common of 
the many varieties found everywhere over the country. Fig. 17 
has uniformly slanting edges, sharp barbs and a strong shank. The 
material from which it is made is white chert. For shooting fish or 
in pursuing game or an enemy, where it was intended that the im- 
plement could not be easily withdrawn from the flesh in which it 
might be driven, the prominent barbs would secure a firm hold. 

Fig. 18 is composed of blue flint; its outline is more rounded 
than the preceding specimen, while a spiral form is given to its deli- 
cate and sharp point. 



Fig. 17 = V 




Fig. 18 



Vermilion county, 
111. 




Fig. 20=^ 



Fio. 19=1^. 





Vermilion 
county, 111. 



Vermilion county, 
111. 



Vermilion 
county. 111. 



Fig. 19 is composed of white chert. Its surface is much smoother 
than the shadings in the cut would imply. Its shape is very much 
like a shield. Its barbs are prominent, and the instrument would 
make a wide incision in the body of an animal into which it might 
be forced. 

Fig. 20, like Fig. 17, has sharp and elongated barbs. It is fash- 
ioned out of white chert, and is a neat, smooth and well-balanced 
implement. -»- 



204 



IIISTOUIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 



Fig. 21 = ^ 




Fig. 21 is made from yellowish-brown quartz, semi-transparent 
and inclined to be impure. The surfaces are oval from edge to 
edge, while the edges themselves are beautifully serrated or notched, 
as is shown in the cut. It is, perhaps, a sample of the finest work- 
manship illustrated in this chapter. Indeed, among 
the many collections which the writer has had oppor- 
tunities to examine, he has never seen a specimen that 
was more skillfully made. 

Fig. 22 may be an arrow-point or a reamer. The 
material is white chert. Between the stem and the 
notches the implement is quite thick, tapering gradu- 
ally back to the head, giving great support to this pai-t 
of the implement. 

Fig. 23 is an arrow-point, or would be so regarded. 
Its stem is roundish, and has a greater diameter than 
the cut would indicate to the eye. The material from 
which it is formed is white chert. 




Vermilion 
county, 111. 



Fig. 22 = 1^. 



Fig. 23=1^ 





Fig. 24=J^. 



Fig. 25=K. 





Vermilion CO., 111. Vermilion co., 111. Vermilion co., 111. 



Vermilion co.. 111. 



Figs. 24 and 25 are specimens of the smaller variety of >' points " 
with which arrows are tipped that are used in killing small game. 
Fig. 24 is made out of black "trap-rock,"' and Fig. 25 out of flesh- 
colored flint. 

Fig. 26 is displayed on account of its peculiar form ; the under 
surface is nearly flat, and the other side has quite a ridge or spine 
running the entire length from head to point. Besides this the head 



Fig. 26=1^. 




Vermilion county, 111. 



and point turn upward, giving a uniform 
curve t(j the implement. If used as an 
arrow-point, the shaft, in consequence of 
tlie shape of the stone, would describe a 
curved line when shot from the bow. It 
is made of white flint. ISTo suggestions 



are offered as to its probable uses. 



VARIETIES OF IMPLEMENTS FOR DOMESTIC USES. 



20& 



IMPLEMENTS FOR DOMESTIC USES. 




Fig. 27 is a pestle or pounder. It is made out of common gran- 
ite. There are many different styles of this 
implement, some varieties are more conical, 
while others are more bell-shaped than the 
one illustrated. They are used for crushing 
corn and other like purposes. The one illus- 
trated has a concave place near the center of 
the base ; this would the better adapt it to 
cracking nuts, as the hollow space would 
protect the kernel from being too severely 
crushed. In connection with this stone, the 
Indians sometimes used inortars, made either 
of wood or stone, into which the articles 
to be pulverized could be placed ; or the 
corn or beans could be done up in the folds Vermilion county, Illinois. 
of a skin, or inclosed in a leathern bag, and ^^- ^- ^"^*' '^ collection.) 
then crushed by blows struck with either the head or rim of the 
pestle.. The stone mortars were usually flat discs, slightly hollowed 
out from the edges toward the center. 

Fig. 28 may be designated as a flesher or scraper. The specimen 
illustrated is made of white flint. It is very 
thin, considering the breadth and length of the 
implement, and has sharp cutting edges all the 
way around. It might be used as a knife, as 
well as for a variety of other purposes. It is 
an unusually smooth and highly flnished tool. 
It and its mate, which is considerably broader, 
and proportioned more like p^, 29= i-^ 
Fig. 29, were found sticking 
perpendicular in the ground, 
with their points barely ex- 
posed above the surface, on 
the farm of Wm. Foster, a 
few miles east of Danville, 
Illinois. Both of them will 

make as clean a cut through 

Vermilion county, 111. i i? u .c ^.^ 

^ several lolds oi paper as the 

blade of a good pocket-knife. 

Fig. 29 is composed of an impure purplish flint. It is very much 

like Fig. 28, and was probably used for similar purposes. 



Fig. 28=3^ 





ermilion c 



206 



HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 




Vermilion county, 111. 



Fig. 31 



Ft': !^o-i<. Fig. 30, as the illustration shows, is rougher- 

edged than the two preceding ones. The side 
opposite the one shown has a more uneven sur- 
face than the other. A smooth, well-defined 
groove runs across the implement (as shown by 
the dark shading) as though it were intended to 
be fastened to a helve, although the groove 
would afford good support for the thumb, if 
the implement were used only with the hand. 
The material is a coarse, impure, grayish flint. 
Fiff. 31 miffht be said to combine the qualities of a „ or. w 
knife, gimlet and bodkin. Its cutting edges extend all 
around, and along the stem the edges are 
quite abrupt. The implement was origi- 
nally much longer, but it appears to have 
lost about an inch in length, its point hav- 
ing been broken off*. The blade will cut 
cloth or paper very readily. The mate- 
rial is white flint. 

Fig. 32 may be classed with Fig. 31. 
The material is dark fine-grained flint, and 
the implement perfect. There is a per- 
ceptible wind to the edges of the stem, 
while the edges of the head are parallel 
with the plane of the implement, and so 
sharp that they will cut cloth, leather or 
paper. It was probably used to bore holes 
and cut out skins that were being manu- 
factured into clothing and other articles. 

Fig. 33 may have been made for the same uses as 
Figs. 31 and 32. The blade is shaped like a spade, 
the stem representing the handle. It tapers from 
the bit of the blade where the stem joins the 
shoulder, which is the thickest part of the imple- 
ment, and from the shoulder it tapers to both ends. 
The bit is shaped like a gouge, and makes a circular 

incision. It is a smooth piece of workmanship, made 
Verniuion /. i • n. 

county 111 out or white nmt. 




Vermilion 
county, 111. 



Fio..33 = i^ 




Vermilion 
county. 111. 



STONE IMPLEMENTS. 



207 



The Fig. 34 

Tlie 




Vermilion 
county, 111. 



35 = 1.^. 



Fig. 34 has been designated as a "rimnier." 
material of whicli it is made is flesh-colored flint, 
stem is nearly round, and the implement could be used 
for piercing holes in leather or wood. Another use at- 
tributed to it is for drilling holes in pipes, gorgets, discs 
and otlier implements formed out of stone where the 
material was soft enough to admit of being perforated in 
this way. 

Fig. 35, By common consent this implement has 
received the name of ''discoidal stone." The one illus- 
trated is comj)osed of fine dark-gray 
granite. Several theories have been 
oflPered as to the uses of this imple- 
ment, — one that they are quoits used 
by the Indians in playing a game 
similar to that of '"pitching horse- 
shoes"; that they were employed in 
another game resembling "ten-pins," 
in which the stone would be grasped 
on its concave side by the thumb and 
second finger, while the fore-finger 
rested on the outer edge, or rim, and 
that by a peculiar motion of the arm in hurling the stone it would 
describe a convolute figure as it rolled along upon the ground. We 
may suggest thatfimplements like this might be used as paint cups, as 
their convex surface would enable the warrior to grind his pigments 
and reduce them to powder, preparatory to decorating his person. 

The implements illustrated were, no doubt, put to many other 
uses besides those suggested. As the pioneer would make his house, 
furniture, plow, ox yokes, and clear his land with his axe, so the 
Indians, in the poverty of their supply, we ma,y assume, were com- 
pelled to make a single tool serve as many purposes as their ingenu- 
ity could devise. 




Vermilion county, 111. (H. N. Rust's 
Collection.) 



CHAPTER XX. 



THE WAR FOR THE FUR TRADE. 

FoKMERLY the great Northwest abounded in game and water-fowL 
The small lakes and lesser water-courses were full of beaver, otter 
and muskrats. In the forests were found the marten, the raccoon, 
and other fur-bearing animals. The plains, partially submerged, 
and the rivers, whose current had a sluggish flow, the shallow lakes, 
producing annual crops of wild rice, of nature's own sowing, teemed 
with wild geese, duck and other aquatic fowl bursting in their veiy 
fatness. * 

The turkey, in his glossy feathers, strutted the forests, some of 
them being of prodigious size, weighing thirty-six pounds, f 

The shy deer and the lordly elk, crowned with outspreading horns, 
grazed upon the plain and in the open woods, while the solitary moose 
browsed upon the buds in the thick copsewood that gave him food 
and a hiding place as well. The fleet-footed antelope nibbled at the 
tender grasses on the prairies, or bounded away over the ridges to 
hide in the valleys beyond, from the approach of the stealthy wolf 
or wily Indian. The belts of timber along the water-courses 

*"The plains and prairies (referring to the country on either side of the Illinois 
River) are all covered with buifaloes, roebucks, hinds, stags, and different kind of fallow- 
deer. The feathered game is also here in the greatest abundance. We find, particu- 
larly, quantities of swan, geese and ducks. The wild oats, which grow naturally on 
the plains, fatten them to sucli a degree that they often die from being smothered in 
their own grease." — Father Marest's letter, written in 1712. We have already seen, 
from a description given on page 103, that water-fowl were equally abundant upon the 
Maumee. 

t In a letter of Father Rasles, dated October 12, 1723, there is a fine description of 
the game found in the Illinois country. It reads: " Of all the nations of Canada, there 
are none who live in so great abundance of everything as the Illinois. Their rivers 
are covered with swans, bustards, ducks and teals. One can scarcely travel a league 
without finding a prodigious multitude of turkeys, who keep together in flocks, often 
to the number of two hundred. They are much larger than those we see in France. 
I had the curiosity to weigh one, which I found to be thirty-six pounds. They have 
hanging from the neck a kind of tuft of hair half a foot in length. 

"Bears and stags are found there in very great numbers, and buffaloes and roebucks 
are also seen in vast herds. Not a year passes but they (the Indians) kill more than a 
thousand roebucks and more than two thousand buffaloes. From four to five thousand of 
the latter can often be seen at one view grazing on the prairies. They have a hump on 
the back and an exceedingly large head. The hair, except that on the head, is curled 
and soft as wool. The flesh has naturally a salt taste, and is so light that, although 
eaten entirely raw, it does not cause the least indigestion. When they have killed a 
buffalo, which appears to them too lean, they content themselves with taking the 
tongue, and going in search of one which is fatter." Vide Kip's Jesuit Missions, pp. 
38, 39. 

208 



THE HUXTEK'S paradise. 



209 




aflforded lodgment for tlie bear, and were the trellises that supported 
the tangled wild grapevines, the fruit of which, to this animal, was 
an article of food. The bear had for his neighbor the panther, the 
wild cat and the lynx, whose carnivorous appetites were appeased in 
the destruction of other animals. 

Immense herds of buffalo roamed over 
the extensive area bounded on the east by 
the Alleghanies and on the north by the 
lakes, embracing the states of Ohio, Indi- 
ana, Illinois, Wisconsin and the southern 
half of Michigan. Their trails checkered 
thei prairies of Indiana and Illinois in 
every direction, the marks of which, deep 
worn in the turf, remained for many years 
after the disappearance of the animals that made them.* Their 
numbers when the country was first known to Europeans were 
immense, and beyond computation. In their migrations southward 
in the fall, and on their return from the blue-grass regions of Ken- 
tucky in the spring, the Ohio River was obstructed for miles during 
the time occupied by the vast herds in crossing it. Indeed, the 
French called the buffalo the "Illinois ox," on account of their 
numbers found in "the country of the Illinois," using that expres- 
sion in its wider sense, as explained on a preceding page. So great 
importance was attached to the supposed commercial value of the 
buffalo for its wool that when Mons. Iberville, in 1698, was engaged 
to undertake the colonization of Louisiana, the king instructed him 
to look after the buffalo wool as one of the most important of his 
duties; and Father Charlevoix, while traveling through "The 
Illinois," observed that he was surprised that the buffalo had been 
so long neglected, t Among the favorite haunts of the buffalo 
were the marshes of the Upper Kankakee, the low lands about the 
lakes of northern Indiana, where the oozy soil furnished early as 
well as late pasturage, the briny earth upon the Au Glaize, and the 
Salt Licks upon the AVabash and Illinois rivers were tempting places 
of resort. From the summit of the high hill at Ouiatanon, over- 
looking the Wea plains to the east and the Grand Prairie to the west, 

* " Nothing," says Father Charlevoix, writing of the country about the confluence of 
the Fox with the Illinois River, " is to be seen in this course but immense prairies, inter- 
spersed with small groves which seem to have been planted by the hands of men. The 
grass is so very high that a man would be almost lost in it. and through which paths 
are to be found everywhere, as well trodden as they could have been in the most popu- 
lated countries, although nothing passes over them but buffaloes, and from time to 
time a herd of deer or a few roebuck ": Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, vol. 2, p. 200. 

t Brackenridge's Views of Louisiana. 
14 



210 HISTORIC XOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

as far as the eye could reach in either direction, the plains were seen 
covered with groups, grazing together, or, in hjng files, stretching 
away in the distance, their dark forms, contrasting with the green- 
sward upon which they fed or strolled, and inspiring the enthusiasm 
of tlie Frenchman, who gave the description quoted on page 104. 
Still later, when passi}ig through the prairies of Illinois, on his way 
from Vincennes to Ouiatanon, — more a prisoner than an ambassa- 
dor, — George Croghan makes the following entry in his daily jour- 
nal : " ISth and 19th of June, 1TG5. — We traveled through a pro- 
digious large meadow, called the Pyankeshaws' hunting ground. 
TTere is no wood to be seen, and the country appears like an ocean. 
The ground is exceedingly rich and partially overgrown with wild 
liemp.* The land is well watered aiid fidl ofhiiffalo^ deer, bears, 
and all kinds of wild game. 20th and 21st. — We passed through 
some very large meadows, part of which belonged to the Pyanke- 
shaws on the Vermilion River. The country and soil were much the 
same as that we traveled over for these three days past. Wild hemp 
grows here in abundance. The game is very plenty. At any time 
in a half hour we could kill as much as we wanted, "f 

Gen. Clark, in the postscript of his letter dated November, 1779, 
narrating his campaign in the Illinois country, says, concerning the 
j^rairies between Kaskaskia and Yincennes, that "there are large 
meadows extending beyond the reach of the eye, variegated with 
groves of trees appearing like islands in the seas, covered with 
Ijuffaloes and other game. In many places, with a good glass, you 
may see all that are upon their feet in a half million acres. "":|: It is 
not known at what time the buffalo was last seen east of the Mis- 
sissippi. The Indians had a tradition that the cold winter of 17 — , 
— called by them ''the gr^eat cold^^'' on account of its severity, — 
destroyed them. "The snow was so deep, and lay upon the ground 
for such a length of time, that the bufialo became poor and too 
weak to resist the inclemency of the weather;" great numbers of 
them perished, singly and in groups, and their bones, either as iso- 
lated skeletons or in bleaching piles, remained and were found over 
the country for many years afterwards. § 

* Further on in his Journal Col. Croghan again refers to " wild hemp, growing in 
the prairies, ten or twelve feet high, which if properly cultivated would prove as good 
and answer all the purposes of the hemp we cultivate." Other writers also mention 
the wild hemp upon the prairies, and it seems to have been supplanted by other grasses 
that have followed in the changes of vegetable growth. 

t Croghan "s Journal. 

i Clark's Campaign in the Illinois, p. 92. 

^ On the 4th of October, 1786, one day's maixh on the road from Vincennes to the 
Ohio Falls, Captains Zigler's and Strong's companies of regulars came across five buffalo. 
The animals tried to force a passage through the column, when the commanding officer 



THE DESTRUCTION OF THE GAME. 211 

Before the coining of tlie Europeans the Indians hunted the game 
for the i)urpose of supplying themselves with the necessary food and 
clothing. The scattered tribes (whose numbers early writers greatly 
exaggerated ) were few, when compared with the area of the coun- 
try they occupied, and the wild animals were so abundant that enough 
to supply their wants could be captured near at hand with such rude 
weapons as their ingenuity fashioned out of wood and stone. With 
the Europeans came a change. The fur of many of the animals 
possessed a commercial value in the marts of Europe, where they 
were bought and used as ornaments and dress by the aristocracy, 
whose wealth and taste fashioned them into garments of extraordi- 
nary richness. Canada was originally settled with a view to the fur 
trade, and this trade was, to her people, of the first importance — the 
chief motor of her growth and prosperity. The Indians were sup- 
plied with guns, knives and hatchets by the Europeans, in place of 
their former inferior weapons. Thus encouraged and equipped, and 
accompanied by the coureur des hois^ the remotest regions were pen- 
etrated, and the fur trade extended to the most distant tribes. Stim- 
ulated with a desire for blankets, cotton goods and trinkets, the In- 
dians now began a war upon the wild animals in earnest; and their 
wanton destruction for their skins and furs alone from that period 
forward was so enormous that within the next two or three genera- 
tions the improvident Indians in many localities could scarcely find 
enough game for their own subsistence. 

The coareur des hois were a class that had much to do with the 
development of trade and with giving a knowledge of the geogra- 
phy of the country. They became extremely useful to the mer- 
chants engaged in the fur trade, and were often a source of great 
annoyance to the colonial authorities. Three or four of these peo- 
ple, having obtained goods upon credit, would join their stock, put 
their property into a birch bark canoe, which they worked them- 
, selves, and accompany the Indians in their excursions or go directly 

ordered the men to fire upon them. The discharge killed three and wounded the 
others: Joseph Buell's Narrative Journal, published in S. P. Hildreth's Pioneer History. 
Thirteen years later, in December, 1799, Gov. St. Clair and Judge Jacob Burnett, on their 
way overland from Cincinnati to Vincennes, camped out over night, at the close of one 
of their days' journeys, not a great ways east of where the old road from Louisville to 
Vincennes crosses White River. The next day they encountered a severe snow-storm, 
during which they surprised eight or ten buffalo, sheltering themselves from the storm 
behind a beech-tree full of dead leaves which had fallen beside of the trace and hid 
the travelers from their view. The tree and the noise of the wind among its leaves 
prevented the buffalo from discovering the parties until the latter had approached 
within two rods of the place where they stood. They then took to their heels and 
were soon out of sight. One of the company drew a pistol and fired, but without 
effect: Burnett's Notes on the Northwest Territory, p. 72. 



212 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

into tlie country where they knew they were to liunt.* Tliese 
voyages were extended twelve or fifteen montlis (sometimes hunger) 
before the traders would return laden with rich cargoes of fur, and 
often followed by great numbers of the natives. During the short 
time required to settle their accounts witli the merchants and pro- 
cure credit for a new stock, the traders would contrive to squander 
their gains before they returned to their favorite mode of life among 
the savages, their labor being rewarded by indulging themselves in 
one month's dissipation for fifteen of exposure and hardship. "We 
may not be able to explain the cause, but experience proves that it 
requires much less time for a civilized people to degenerate into the 
ways of savage life than is required for the savage to rise into a state 
of civilization. The indifference about amassing property, and the 
pleasure of living free from all restraint, soon introduced a licen- 
tiousness among the coureur des hois that did not escape the eye of 
the missionaries, who complained, with good reason, that they were 
a disgrace to the Christian religion, "f 

"The food of the coureur des hois when on their long expeditions 
was'Indian corn, prepared for use by boiling it in strong lye to re- 
move the hull, after which it was mashed and dried. In this state 
it is soft and friable like rice. The allowance for each man on the 
voyage, was one quart per day ; and a bushel, with two pounds of 
prepared fat, is reckoned a month's subsistence. JSTo other allow- 
ance is made of any kind, not even of salt, and bread is never 
thought of; nevertheless the men are healthy on this diet, and ca- 
pable of performing great labor. This mode of victualing was es- 
sential to the trade, which was extended to great distances, and in 
canoes so small as not to admit of the use of any other food. If 
the men were supplied with bread and pork, the canoes would not 
carry six months' rations, while the ordinary duration of the voyage 
was not less than fourteen. No other men would be reconciled to 
such fare excej^t the Canadians, and tliis fact enabled their employ- 
ers to secure a monopoly of the fur trade.":}; 

"The old voyageiirs derisively called new hands at the business 
Tfiangeurs' de lard (pork eaters), as, on leaving Montreal, and while 
en route to Mackinaw, their rations were pork, hard bread and })ea 

*The merchandise was neatly tied into bundles weighing: sixty or seventy pounds; 
the furs received in exchange were compressed into packets of about the same weight, 
so that they could be conveniently carried, strapped upon the back of the roiiageur, 
around the portages and other places where the loaded canoes could effect no passage. 

fSir Alexander Mackenzie's Voyages, etc., and An Account of the Fur Trade, etc. 

i Henry's Travels, p. 52. 



THE COUREUR DES I30IS. 213 

soup, wliile tlie old voyageurs in the Indian country ate corn soup 
and such other food as coukl be conveniently procured. '"'* 

"The coureur des hois were men of easy virtue. They would 
eat, riot, drink and play as long as their furs held out," says La 
Hontan, ''and when these were gone they would sell their embroi- 
dery, tlieir laces and their clothes. The proceeds "of these exhausted, 
they were forced to go upon new voyages. for subsistence. "f 

They did not scruple to intermarry with the Indians, among 
whom they si)ent the greater part of their lives. They made excel- 
lent soldiers, and in bush fighting and bordeV warfare they were 
•more than u mutcli for the British regulars. "Their merits were 
hardihood and skill in woodcraft ; their chief faults were insubor- 
dination and lawlessness.":}: 

Such were the characteristics of the French traders or coureur des 
hois. They penetrated the remotest parts, voyaged upon all of our 
western rivers, and traveled many of the insignilicant streams that 
afforded hardly water enough to float a canoe. Their influence over 
the Indians (to whose mode of life they readily adapted themselves) 
was almost supreme. They were efficient in the service of their 
king, and materially assisted in staying the downfall of French rule 
in America. 

There is no data from which to ascertain the value of the fur 
trade, as there were no regular accounts kept. The value of the 
trade to the French, in 1703, was estimated at two millions of livres, 
and this could have been from only a partial return, as a large per 
•cent of the trade was carried on clandestinely through Albany and 
New York, of which the French authorities in Canada could have 
no knowledge. With the loss of Canada, and the west to France, 
and owing to the dislike of the Indians toward the English, and the 
want of experience by the latter, the fur trade, controlled at Montreal, 
fell into decay, and the Hudson Bay Company secured the advan- 
tages of its downfall. During the winter of 1783-4 some merchants 

*Vol. 2 Wisconsin Historical Collection, p. 110. Judge Lockwood gives a very- 
fine sketch of the coureur des hois and the manner of their employment, in the paper 
from which we have quoted. 

t La Hontan, vol. 1, pp. 20 and 21. 

X Parkman's Count Frontenac and New France, p. 309. Judge Lockwood, in the 
paper referred to, speaking of the coureur des hois as their relations existed to the fur 
trade in 1817, thus describes them: "These men engaged in Canada, generally for five 
years, for Mackinaw and its dependencies, transferrable like cattle, to any one who 
wanted them, at generally about 500 livres a year, or, in our currency, about $83.33, 
furnished with a yearly equipment or outfit of two cotton shirts, one three-point or 
triangular blanket, a portage collar and one pair of shoes. They were obliged to pur- 
chase their moccasins, tobacco and pipes at any price the trader saw fit to charge for 
them. At the end of five years the voyageurs were in debt from $50 to $150, and 
could not leave the country until they paid their indebtedness." 



214 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

of Canada united their trade under the name of the "Northwest 
Company"; they did not get successfully to work until 1Y87. Dur- 
ing that year the venture did not exceed forty thousand pounds, but 
by exertion and the enterprise of the proprietors it was brought, in 
eleven years, to more than triple that amount (equal to six hundred 
thousand dollars), yielding proportionate profits, and surpassing any- 
thing then known in America.* 

The fur trade was conducted by the English, and subsequently 
by the Americans, substantially upon the system originally estab- 
lished by the French, with this distinction, that the monopoly was 
controlled by French officers and favorites, to whom the trade for 
particular districts was assigned, while the English and Americans 
controlled it through companies operating either under charters or 
permits from the government. 

Goods for Indian trade were guns, ammunition, steel for striking 
fire, gun-flints, and other supplies to repair fire-arms; knives, hatchets, 
kettles, beads, men's shirts, blue and red cloths for blankets and 
petticoats ; vermilion, red, yellow, green and blue ribbons, gener- 
ally of English manufacture ; needles, thread and awls ; looking- 
glasses, children's toys, woolen blankets, razors for shaving the 
head, paints of all colors, tobacco, and, more than all, spirituous 
liquors. For these articles the Indians gave in exchange the skins 
of deer, bear, otter, squirrel, marten, lynx, fox, wolf, buffalo, 
moose, and particularly the beaver, the highest prized of them all. 
Such was the value attached to the skins and fur of the last that 
it became the standard of value. All other values were measured 
by the beaver, the same as we now use gold, in adjusting com- 
mercial transactions. All difterences in exchanges of property or 
in payment f(")r labor were first reduced in value to the beaver skin. 
Money was rarely received or jniid at any of the trading-posts, the 
only circulating medium were furs and peltries. In tliis exchange a 
pound of beaver skin was reckoned at thirty sous, an otter skin at 
six llvres, and marten skins at thirty sous each. This was only about 
half of the real value of the furs, and it was therefore always agreed 
to pay either in furs at their equivalent cash value at the fort or 
double the amount reckoned at current fur value. + 

When the French controlled the fur trade, the posts in the interior 
of the country were assigned to officers who were in favor at head- 
quarters. x\s they had no money, the merchants of Quebec and 
Montreal supplied them on credit M'ith the necessary goods, which 

* Mackenzie's Voyages, Fur Trade, etc. 
t Henr}''s Travels and Pouchot's Memoirs. 



THE FUR tradp:. 215 

were to be paid for in peltries at a price agreed upon, thus being 
required to earn profits for themselves and the merchant. These 
officers were often employed to negotiate for the king with the tribes 
near their trading-posts and give tliem goods as presents, the price 
for tlie latter being jVaid by the intendant upon tUe approval of the 
governor. This occasioned many hypothecated accounts, whicli were 
turned to the profit of the commandants, j)articularly in time of 
war. The commandants as well as private traders were obliged to 
take out a license from the governor at a cost of four or five hundred 
liv?'es, in order to carry their goods to the posts, and to charge some 
eflTects to the king's account. The most distant posts in the north- 
west were prized the greatest, because of the abundance and low- 
price of peltries and the high price of goods at these remote estab- 
lisliments. 

Another kind of trade was carried on by the coureurs des hoisy 
who, sharing the license with the ofiicer at the post, with their canoes 
laden with goods, went to the villages of the Indians, and followed 
them on their hunting expeditions, to return after a season's trading 
with their canoes well loaded. If the coureurs des bois were in a 
condition to purchase their goods of first hands a quick fortune was 
assured them, although to obtain it they had to lead a most danger- 
ous and fatiguing life. Some of these traders would return to France 
after a few years' venture with wealth amounting to two million five 
hundred thousand Jivres.'-^ 

The French were not permitted to exclusively enjoy the enormous 
profits of the fur trade. We have seen, in treating of the Miami 
Indians, that at an early day the English and the American colonists 
were determhied to share it, and had become sharp competitors. We 
have seen (page 112) that to extend their trade the English had set 
their allies, the Iroquois, upon the Illinois. So formidable were the 
inroads made by the English upon the fur trade of the French, by 
means of the conquests to which they had incited the Iroquois to 
gain over other tribes that were friendly to the French, that the 
latter became "of the opinion that if the Iroquois were allowed to 
proceed they would not only subdue the Illinois, but become nuisters 
of all the Ottawa tribes,t and divert the trade to the English, so that 
it was absolutely necessary that the French should either make the 
Iroquois iJieir friends or destroy them.X You perceive, my Lord^ 

* I'oucliot's Memoirs. 

t Whose territories embraced all the country west of Lake Huron and north of 
Illinois, — one of the most prolific beaver grounds in the country. 

X Memoir of M. Du Chesneau, the Intendant, to the King, September 9, 1681, before 
quoted. 



216 HISTOIUC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

that the subject which we have discussed [referring to the efforts of 
the English of New York and Albany to gain the beaver trade] is to 
determine who will be mader of the heaver trade of the south and 
southwest."* 

In the struggle to determine who should be masters of the fur 
trade, the French cared as little, — perhaps less, — for their Indian 
allies than the British and Americans did for theirs. The blood that 
was shed in the English and French colonies north of the Ohio 
Kiver, for a period of over three-quarters of a century prior to 1763, 
might well be said to have been spilled in a war for the fur trade, f 

In the strife between the rivals, — the French endeavoring to hold 
their former possessions, and the English to extend theirs, — the 
strait of Detroit was an object of concern to both. Its strategical 
position was sucli that it would give the party possessing it a decided 
advantage. M. Du Lute, or L'llut, under orders from Gov. De 
Nonville, left Mackinaw with some fifty odd coureurs des hois in 
1688, sailed down Lake Huron and threw up a small stockade fort 
on the west bank of the lake, where it discharges into the River St. 
Clair. The following year Capt. McGregory, — Major Patrick Ma- 
gregore, as his name is spelled in the commission he had in his 
pocket over the signature of Gov. Dongan, — with sixty Englishmen 
and some Indians, with their merchandise loaded in thirty-two 
<janoes, went up Lake Erie on a trading expedition among the In- 
dians at Detroit and Mackinaw. They were encountered and cap- 
tured by a body of troops under Tonty, La Forest and other officers, 
who, with coureur de hois and Indians from the upper country, 
were on their way to join the French forces of Canada in a campaign 
against the Iroquois villages in New York, j' The prisoners were 
sent to Quebec, and the plunder distributed among the captors; Du 
Lute's stockade was called Fort St. Joseph. In 1688 the fort was 
placed in command of Baron LaHontan.§ 

Fort St. Joseph served the purposes for wl^ich it was constructed, 
and a few years later, in 1701, Mons. Cadillac established Fort Pont- 
"chartrain on the present site of the city of Detroit, for no other pur- 

* M. De La Barre to the Minister of the Marine, November 4, 1683: Paris Docu- 
ments, vol. 9, p. 210, 

t War was not formally declared between France and England, on account of 
colonial difficulties, until May, 1756, but the discilrsory broils between their colonies in 
America had btMMi {jroing on from the time of their establishment. 

X Tonty's Memoir, and Paris Documents, vol. 9, pp. 363 and 866. 

S Port Du Luth, or St. Joseph, as it was afterward called, was ordered to be erected 
in 1686, " in order to fortify the pass leading to Mackinaw ajjainst the English." Du 
Luth, who erected it, was in command of fifty men. Sevei-al parties of English were 
either captured or sent back from this post within a vear or two from its establishment. 
Vide Paris Documents, vol. 9, pp. 300, 302, 306, 383". 



ENGLISH AXD AMEKICAN TRADERS. 217 

pose than to check the English in tlie prosecution of the fur trade in 
that country. ■'•■ 

The French interests were soon threatened from another direc- 
tion. Traders from Pennsylvania found their way westward over the 
mountains, where they engaged in traffic with the Indians in the 
valleys of eastern Ohio, and they soon established commercial rela- 
tions with the Wabash tribes, t It appears from a previous chapter 
that the Mianiis were trading at Albany in ITOS. To avert this 
danger the French were compelled at last to erect military posts at 
Fort Wayne, on the Maumee (called Fort Miamis), at Ouiatanon and 
Yincennes, upon the Wabash.:}; Prior to 1750 Sieur de Ligneris 
was commanding at Fort Ouiatanon, and St. Ange was in charge at 
Yincennes. 

As soon as the English settlements reached the eastern slope of 
the Alleghanies, their tradei's passed over the ridge, and they found 
it exceedingly profitable to trade with the w^estern Indians. They 
could sell the same quality of goods for a third or a half of what the 
French usually charged, and still make a handsome profit. This 
new and rich field was soon overrun by eager adventurers. In the 
meantime a number of gentlemen, mostly from Yirginia, procured 
an act of parliament constituting "The Ohio Company," and grant- 
ing them six hundred thousand aci-es of land on or near the Ohio 
Kiver. The objects of this company were to till the soil and to open 
up a trade with the Indians west.of the Alleghanies and south of the 
Ohio. 

The French, being well aware that the English could offer their 
goods to the Indians at greatly reduced rates, feared that they would 
lose the entire Indian trade. At first they protested "against this 
( invasion of the rights of Ilis Most Christian Majesty" to the gov- 
ernor of the English colonies. This did not produce the desired 
effect. Their demands were met with equivocations and delays. 
At last the French determined on summary measures. An order 

* Statement of Mons. Cadillac of his reasons for establishing a fort on the Detroit 
River, copied in Sheldon's Early History of Michigan, pp. 85-90. 

t An Englishman by the name of Crawford had been trading on the Wabash prior 
to 1749. Vide Irving's Life of Washington, vol. 1, p. 48. 

:j:The date of the establishment of these forts is a matter of conjecture, owing to 
the absence of reliable data. A " Miamis " is referred to in 1719, and in the same year 
Sieur Duboisson was selected as a suitable person to take command at Ouiatanon, and 
in 1785 M. de Vincenne is alluded to, in a letter written from Kaskaskia, as com- 
mandant of the Post on the Wabash. However, owing to the successive migrations of 
the Miami Indians, the "Miamis" mentioned in such documents, in 1719, may have 
referred to the Miami and Wea villages upon the Kalamazoo and St. Joseph rivers, in 
the state of Michigan. The post at Yincennes, it may be safely assumed, was garri- 
soned as early as 1735, and Ouiatanon, below La Fayette, and Miamis, at Fort Wayne, 
some years before, in the order of time. 



218 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

was issued to the coinniaiuliints of their various ]>osts on Lake Erie, 
the Ohio and the AV abash, to seize all English traders found west of 
the Alleghanies. In pursuance of this order, in 1751, four English 
traders were captured on the Yerniilion <^f the Wabash and sent to 
Canada.'" Other traders, dealing with the Indians in other locali- 
ties, were captured and taken to Presque Isle,t and from thence to 
Canada. 

The contest between the rival colonies still went on, increasing 
in the extent of its line of operations and intensifying in the ani- 
mosity of the feeling with which it was conducted. We quote from 
a memoir prepared early in 1T52, by M. de Longueuil, commandant 
at Detroit, showing the state of affairs at a previous date in the 
Wabash country. It appears, from the letters of the commandants 
at the several posts named, from which the memoir is compiled, 
that the Indian tribes upon the Maumee and Wabash, through the 
successful efforts of the English, had become very much disaffected 
toward their old friends and masters. M. de Ligneris, commandant 
at the Ouyatanons, says the memoir, believes that great reliance is 
not to be placed on the Maskoutins, and that their remaining neutral 
is all that is to be expected from them and the Ivickapous. He even 
adds that "we are not to reckon on the nations which appear in our 
interests ; no Wea chief has appeared at this post for a long time. 
M, de Villiers. commandant at the Miamis, — Ft. Wayne, — has been 
disappointed in his expectation of bringing the Miamis back from the 
White River, — part of whom had been to see him, — the small-pox 
having put the whole of them to rout. Coldfoot and his son have 
died of it, as well as a large portion of our most trusty Indians. 
Le Grls^ chief of the Tepicons^X ^^^ -^^^^ mother are likewise dead; 
they are a loss, because they were well disposed toward the French." 

The memoir continues: "The nations of the Eiver St. Joseph, 
who were to join those of Detroit, have said they would be ready to 
perform their promise as soon as 0)ionontio% would have sent the 
necessary number of Frenchmen. The commandant of this post 
writes, on the 15th of January, that all the nations appear to take 

* Paris Documents, vol. 10, p. 248. 

t Near Erie, Pennsylvania. 

X This is the first reference we have to Tippecanoe. Antoine Gamelin, the French 
merchant at Vmcennes, — whom Major Hamtramck sent, in 1700, to the Wabash towns 
with peace messages, — calls the village, then upon this river, Qid-ie-pi-con-nac. The 
name of the Tippecanoe is derived from the Algonquin word Ke-noii-ge, or Ke-no-zha 
— from Keiiofte, long, the name of the long-billed pike, a fish ver}' abundant in this 
stream, ride Mackenzie's and James' Vocabularies. Timothy Flint, in his Treography 
and History of the Western States, first edition, published at Cincinnati, 1828, vol. 2, 
p. 125, says: " The Tippecanoe received its name from a kind of pike called Pic-cn-naii 
by the savages." The termination is evidently Frenchified. 

§ The name by which the Indians called the governor of Canada. 



FRENCH TRADERS KILLED. 219 

sides against ns ; that he would not be responsible for the good 
dispositions these Indians seem to entertain, inasmuch as the 
Miamis are their near relatives. On the one hand, Mr. de Jon- 
caire"" repeats that the Indians of the beautiful riverf are all English^ 
for whom alone they work; that all are resolved to sustain each 
other ; and that not a party of Indians go to the beautiful river but 
leave some [of their numbers] there to increase the rebel forces. 
On the other hand, "Mr. de St. Ange, commandant of the post of 
Yincennes, writes to M. des Ligneris [at Ouiatanon] to use all 
means to j)rotect himself from the storm which is ,,ready to burst on 
the French ; that /te is busy securing himself against the fury of our 
enemies."' 

"The Pianguichias, who are at war with the Chaouanotis, ac- 
cording to the report rendered by Mr. St. Clin, have declared entirely 
against us. They killed on Christmas five Frenchmen at the Ver- 
milion. Mr. des Ligneris, who was aware of this attack, sent oif a 
detachment to secure the effects of the Frenchmen from being plun- 
dered ; but when this detachment arrived at the Yermilion, the 
Piankashaws had decamped. The bodies of the Frenchmen were 
found on the ice.:{: 

''M. des Ligneris was assured that the Piankashaws had commit- 
ted this act because four men of their nation had been killed by the 
French at the Illinois, and four others had been taken and put in 
irons. It is said that these eight men were going to fight the Chick- 
asaws, and had, without distrusting anything, entered the quartern 
of the French, who killed them. It is also reported that the French- 
men had recourse to this extreme measure because a Frenchman and 

* A French half-breed having great influence over the Indians, and whom the 
French authorities had sent into Ohio to conciliate the Indians. 

t The Ohio. ^ 

tCol. Croghan's Journal, before quoted, gives the key to the aboriginal name of 
this stream. On the 22d of June, 1765, he makes the following entry: " We passed 
through a part of the same meadow mentioned yesterday; then came to a high wood- 
land and arrived at Vermilion River, so called from a fine red earth found there by the 
Indians, with which they paint themselves. About a half a mile from where we crossed 
this river there is a village of Piankashaws, distinguished by the addition of the name 
of the river" (that is, the Piankashaws of the Vermilion, or the Vermilions, as they 
were sometimes called). The red earth or red chalk, known under the provincial name 
of red keel, is abundant everywhere along the bluffs of the Vermilion, in the shales 
that overhiy the outcropping coal. The annual fires frequently ignited the coal thus 
exposed, and would burn the shale above, turn it red and render it friable. Carpen- 
ters used it to chalk their lines, and the successive generation of boys have gathered it 
by the pocketful. Those acquainted with the passion of the Indian for paint, particu- 
larly red, will understand the importance which the Indians would attach to it. Hence, 
as noted by Croghan, they called the river after the name of this red earth. Vermilion 
IS the French word conveying the same idea, and it is a coincidence merely that Ver- 
milion in French has the same meaning as this word in English On the map in 
" Volney's View of the Soil and Climate of the United States," Phila. ed. 1804, it is- 
called Red River. The Miami Indian name of the Vermilion was Piankasliaw, as ap- 
pears from Gen. Putnam's manuscript Journal of the treaty at Vmcennes in 1792. 



220 HISTORIC NOTES ON" THE NORTHWEST. 

two slaves had been killed a few days before by another party of 
Piankashaws, and that the Indians in question had no knowledge of 
that circumstance. The capture of four English traders by M. de 
Celoron's order last year has not prevented other Englishmen going 
to trade at the Vermilion liiver, where the Rev. Father la liichardie 
wintered."* 

The memoir continues: "On the 19th of October the Pianka- 
shaws had killed two more Frenchmen, who were constructing 
pirogues lower down than the Post of Yincenne. Two days after- 
ward the Piankashaws killed two slaves in sight of Fort Vincenne. 
The murder of these nine Frenchmen and these two slaves is but 
too certain. A squaw, the widow of one of the Frenchmen who had 
Tjeen killed at the Vermilion, has reported that the Pianguichias, 

Illinois and Osages were to assemble at the prairies of , the 

place where Messrs. de Villiers and de JSToyelle attacked the Foxes 
about twenty years ago, and when they had built a fort to secure 
their families, they were to make a general attack on all the French. 

"The Miamis of Rock Riverf have scalped two soldiers belong- 
ing to Mr. Villiers"' fort.:}; This blow was struck last fall. Finally, 
the English have paid the Miamis for the scalps of the two soldiers 
belonging to Mr. de Villiers' garrison. To add to the misfortunes, 
M. des Ligneris has learned that the commandant of the Illinois at 
Fort Charters would not permit Sieurs Delisle and Fonblanche, 
who had contracted with the king to supply the Miainis^ Ouyaton- 
0718^ and 6^6-/1 Detroit with provisions from the Illinois, to purchase 
any provisions for the subsistence of the garrisons of those posts, on 
the ground that an increased arrival of troops and families would 
consume the stock at the Illinois. Famine is not the sole scourge 
we experience ; the smallpox commits ravages ; it begins to reach 
Detroit. It were desirable that it should break out and spread gen- 
erally throughout the localities inhabited by our rebels. It would 
be fully as good as an army." 

The Piankashaws, now completely estranged from the French, 
withdrew, almost in a body, from the Wabash, and retired to the 
Big Miami, whither a number of Miamis and other Indians had, 

* Father Justinian de la Ricliaidie came to Canada (according to the Liste Ctono- 
logique, No. 439) in 1716. He served many years in the Huron country, and also in 
the Illinois, and died in February, 1758. Biographical note of the editor of Paris 
Documents : Col. Hist, of New York, vol. 9. p. 88. The time when and the place at 
which this missionary wa§ stationed on the Vermilion River is not given. The date 
was before 1750, as is evident from the text. The place was probal^ly at the large 
Piankashaw town where the traders were killed. 

fThe Big Miami River of Ohio, on which stream, near the mouth of Loramies 
Creek, the Miamis had an extensive village, hereafter referred to. 

X Ft. Wayne, where Mr. Villiers was then stationed in charge of Fort Miamis. 



PICKAWILLANY. 221 

some years previous, established a village, to be nearer the English 
traders. The village was called Pick aiolllany^ or P lcktown. To 
the English and Iroquois it was known as the Taw ixtwi T own^ or 
Miamitown. It was located at the mouth of what has since been 
called Loramie's creek. The stream derived this name from the fact 
that a Frenchman of that name, subsequent to the events here nar- 
rated, had a trading-house at this place. The town was visited in 
1751 by Christopher Gis^t, who gives the following description of it:* 
''The Twightee town is situated on the northwest side of the Big 
Min e ami River, about one hundred and fifty miles from its mouth. 
It consists of four hundred families, and is daily increasing. It is 
accounted one of the strongest Indian towns in this part of the con- 
tinent. The Twightees are a very numerous people, consisting of 
many different tribes under the same form of government. Each 
tribe has a particular chief, or king, one of which is chosen indiffer- 
ently out of any tribe to rule the whole nation, and is vested with 
greater authority than any of the others. They have but lately 
traded with the English. They formerly lived on the farther side of 
the "Wabash, and were in the French interests, who supplied them 
with some few trifles at a most exorbitant price. They have now 
revolted from them and left their former habitations for the sake of 
trading with the English, and notwithstanding all the artifices the 
French have used, they have not been able to recall them." George 
Croghan and Mr. Montour, agents in the English interests, were in 
the town at the time of Gist's visit, doing what they could to inten- 
sify the animosity of the inhabitants against the French. Speeches 
were made and presents exchanged to cement the friendship with 
the English, ^hile these conferences were going on, a deputation 
of Indians \\^ the French interests arrived, with soft words and valu- 
able j^resents, marching into the village under French colors. The 
deputation was admitted to the council-house, that they might make 
the object of their visit known. The Piankashaw chief, or king, 
"Old Britton," as he was called, on account of his attachment 
for the English, had both the British and French flags hoisted from 
the council-house. The old chief refused the brandy, tobacco and 
other presents sent to him from the French king. In reply to the 
speeches of the French ambassadors he said that the road to the 
French had been made foul and bloody by them ; that he had 
cleared a road to our brothers, the English, and that the French had 
made that bad. The French flag was taken down, and the emissaries 

* Christopher Gist's Journal. 



222 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

of that people, with their presents, returned to the French post from 
whence thej came. 

When negotiations failed to win the Mianiis back to French 
authority, force was resorted to. On the 21st of June, 1Y52, a party 
of two hundred and forty French and Indians appeared before Pick- 
awillany, surprised the Indians in their corn-tields, approaching so 
suddenly that the white men who were in their houses had great 
difficulty in reaching the fort. They killed one Englishman and 
fourteen Miamis, captured the stockade fort, killed the old Pianka- 
sliaw king, and put his body in a kettle, boiled it and ate it up in 
retaliation for his people having killed the French traders on the 
Vermilion River and at Yincennes.* "Thus," says the eloquent 
historian, George Bancroft, "on the alluvial lands of western Ohio 
began the contest that was to scatter death broadcast through the 
world, "t 

* The account of the affair at Pickawillany is summarized from the Journal of Capt. 
Wm. Trent and other papers contained in a valuable book edited by A. T. Goodman, 
secretary of the Western Reserve Historical Society, and published by Robert Clarke 
& Co., 1871, entitled "Journal of Captain Trent." 

fOld Britton's successor was his son, a young man, whose name was Mu-she- 
gu-a-nock-qne, or "The Turtle." The English, and Indians in their interests, had a 
very high esteem for the young Piankashaw king. It is said by some writers, and 
there is much probability of the correctness of their opinion, that the great Miami 
chief. Little Turtle, was none other than the person here referred to. His age would 
correspond very well with that of the Piankashaw, and members of one band of the 
Miami nation frequently took up their abode with other bands or families of their kin- 
dred. 



CHAPTER XXL 



THE WAR FOR THE EMPIRE. ITS LOSS TO THE FRENCH. 

The English not only disputed the right of the French to the 
fur trade, but denied their title to the valley of the Mississippi, 
which lay west of their American colonies on the Atlantic coast. 
The grants from the British crown conveyed to the chartered pro- 
prietors all of the country lying between certain parallels of latitude, 
according to the location of the several grants, and extending west- 
ward to the South Sea, as the Pacific was then called. Seeing the 
weakness of such a claim to vast tracts of country, upon which no 
Englishman had ever set his foot, they obtained deeds of cession 
from the Iroquois Indians, — the dominant tribe east of the Mississip- 
pi, — who claimed all of the country between the Alleghanies and the 
Mississippi b}' conquest from the several Algonquin tribes, who occu- 
pied it. On the 13th of July, 1701, the sachems of the Five Nations 
conveyed to William III, King of Great Britain, "their beaver- 
hunting grounds northwest and west from Albany," including a 
broad strip on the south side of Lake Erie, all of the present states 
of Michigan, ( )hio and Indiana, and Illinois as far west as the Illi- 
nois liiver, claiming " that their ancestors did, more than fourscore 
years before, totally conquer, subdue and drive the former occupants 
out of that country, and had peaceable and quiet possession of the 
same, to hunt beavers in, it being the only chief place for hunting 
in that part of the world,'" etc.* The Iroquois, for themselves and 
heirs, granted the English crown "the whole soil, the lakes, the 

*The deed is found in London Documents, voL 4, p. 908. The boundaries of the 
grant are indefinite in many respects. Its westward limit, says the deed, " abutts 
upon the Twichtwichs [Miamis], and is bounded on the right hand by a place called 
Qua doge.'''' On Eman Bowen's map, which is certainly the most authentic from the 
British standpoint, is a " pecked line" extending from the mouth of the Illinois river, 
up that stream, to the Desplaines, thence across the prairies to Lake Michigan at 
Quadoge or Quadaghe, which is located on the map some distance southeast of Chicago, 
which is also shown in its correct place, and at or near the mouth of the stream that 
forms the harbor at Michigan City, formerly known by the French as Riviere du Che- 
min, or " Trail River," because the great trail from Chicago to Detroit and Ft. Wayne 
left the lake shore at this place. The "pecked line," — as Mr. Bowen calls the dotted 
line which he traces as the boundary of the Iroquois deed of cession, — extends from 
Michigan City northward through the entire length of Lake Michigan, the Straits of 
Mackinaw and between the Manitou-lin islands and the main shore in Lake Huron; 
thence into Canada around the north shore of Lake Nipissing; and thence down the 
Ottawa River to its confluence with the St. Lawrence. 

223 



224 HISTOllIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

rivers, and all things pertaining to said tract of land, with power 
to erect forts and castles there, ^' only reserving to the grantors and 
"their descendants forever the right of liunting upon the same," in 
which privilege the grantee "was expected to j)r()tect them." The 
grant of the Iroquois was coniirmed to the British crown by deeds 
of renewal in 1726 and 1744. The reader will have observed, from 
what has been said in the preceding chapters upon the Illinois and 
Mianiis and Pottawatomies relative to the pretended conquests ot 
the Iroquois, how little merit there was in the claim they set up to 
the territory in question. Their war parties only raided upon the 
country, — they never occupied it; their war parties, after doing as 
much mischief as they could, returned to their own country as 
rajDidly as they came. Still their several deeds to the English crown 
were a "color of title" on which the latter laid great stress, and 
paraded at every treaty with other powers, where questions involv- 
ing the right to this territory were a subject of discussion.* 

The war for the fur trade expanded into a struggle for empire 
that convulsed both continents of America and Europe. The limit 
assigned this work forbids a notice of the principal occurrences in 
the progress of the French-Colonial War, as most of the military 
jnovements in that contest were outside of the territory we are con- 
sidering. There were, however, two campaigns conducted by troops 
recruited in the northwest, and these engagements will be noticed. 
AVe believe they have not heretofore been compiled as fully as their 
imjDortance would seem to demand. 

In 1758 Gen. Forbes, with about six thousand troops, advanced 
against Fort Du Quesne.f In mid-September the British troops had 
only reached Loyal-hannon,:{: where they raised a fort. "Intelli- 
gence had been received that Fort Du Quesne was defended by but 
eight hundred men, of whom three hundred were Indians, "§ and 
Major Grant, commanding eight hundred Highlanders and a com- 
pany of Virginians, was sent toward the French fort. On the third 

* The Iroquois themselves, — as appears from an English memoir on the Indian 
trade, and contained among the London Documents, vol. 7, p. 18, — never supposed 
they had actually conveyed their right of dominion to these lands. Indeed, it appears 
that the Indians generally could not comprehend the purport of a deed or grant in the 
sense that the Europeans attach to these formidable instruments. The idea of an 
absolute, fee-simple right of an individual, or of a body of persons, to exclusively own 
real estate against the right of others even to enter upon it, to hunt or cut a shrub, 
was beyond the power of an Indian to comprehend. From long habit and the owner- 
ship (not only of land but many articles of domestic use) by the tribe or village of 
property in common, they could not understand how it could be held otherwise. 

t At the present site of Pittsburgh, Pa. 

i Loyal-hannon, afterward Fort Ligonier, was situated on the east side of Loyal- 
hannon Creek, Westmoreland county. Pa., and was about forty-five miles from Fort 
Du Quesne; ride Pennsylvania Archives, XII, 389. 

§ Bancroft, vol. iv, p. 311. 



DEFEAT OF THE ENGLISH. 225 

day's mtircli (Traiit liad arrived within two rniles of Fort Du Quesne. 
Leaving his baggage there, he took position on a hill, a quarter of a 
mile from the fort, and encamped.* 

Grant, who was not aware that the garrison had been reinforced 
by the arrival of Mons. Aubry, commandant at Fort Chartes, with 
four hundred men from the Illinois country, determined on an am- 
buscade. At break of day Major Lewis was sent, with four hundred 
men, to lie in ambush a mile and a half from the main body, on the 
path on which they left their baggage, imagining the Fi-ench would 
send a force to attack the baggage guard and seize it. Four hundred 
men were po.-ted along the hill facing the fort to cover the retreat of 
MacDonald's company, which marched with drums beating toward 
the fort, in order to draw a party out of it, as Major Grant liad rea- 
son to believe there were, including Indians, only two hundred men 
within it.f 

M. de Ligneris, commandant at Fort Du Quesne, at once assem- 
bled seven or eight hundred men, and gave the command to M. 
Aubry.:]: The French sallied out of the fort, and the Indians, who 
had crossed the river to keep out of the way of the British, returned 
and made a flank movement. Aubry, by a rapid movement, attacked 
the different divisions of the English, and completely routed and 
dispersed them. The force under Major Lewis was compelled to 
give way. Being flanked, a number were driven into the river, 
most of whom were drowned. The English lost two hundred and 
seventy killed, forty-two wounded, and several prisoners ; among the 
latter was Grant. 

On the 22d of September M. Aubry left Fort Du Quesne, with a 
force of six hundred French and Indians, intending to reconnoitre 
the position of the English at Loyal-hann(»n. 

"He found a little camp in front of some intrenchments which 
would cover a body of two thousand men. The advance guard of 
the French detachment having been discovered, the English sent a 
captain and fifty men to reconnoitre, who fell in with the detach- 
ment and were entirely defeated. In following the fugitives the 
French fell upon this camp, and surprised and dispersed it. 

"The fugitives scarcely gained the principal intrenchment, which 
M. Aubry held in blockade two days. He killed two hundred horses 
and cattle." The French returned to Fort Du Quesne mounted. § 
"The English lost in the engagement one hundred and fifty men, 

*The hill has ever since borne Grant's name, 
f Craig's History of Pittsburgh, p. 74. 

JGameau's History of Canada, Bell's translation, vol. 2, p. 214. 
§ Pouchot's Memoir, p. 130. 
15 



226 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

killed, wounded and missing. The French loss was two killed and 
seven wounded.'^ 

The Louisiana detachment, which took the principal part in both 
of these battles, was recruited from the French posts in "The Illi- 
nois," and consisted of soldiers taken from the garrison in that terri- 
tory, and tlie coxreurs des bois; traders and settlers in their respective 
neighborhoods. It was the first battalion ever raised within the 
limits of the jiresent states of Illinois, Indiana and Michigan, xifter 
the action of Lojal-haunon, ''the Louisiana detachment, as well as 
those from Detroit, returned home."" 

Soon after their departure, and on the 24th of November, the 
French abandoned Fort Du Quesne. Pouchot says: "It came to 
pass that bv blundering at Fort Du Quesne the French were obliged 
to abandon it for want of provisions." This may have been the 
true reason for the abandonment, but doubtless the near approach of 
a large English army, commanded by Gen. Forbes, had no small 
influence in accelerating their movements. The fort was a mere 
stockade, of small dimensions, and not suited to resist tlie attacks of 
artillery, f 

Having burnt the stockade and storehouses, the garrison sepa- 
rated. One hundred retired to Presque Isle, by land. Two hundred, 
by way of the Alleghany, went to Yenango. The remaining hun- 
dred descended the Ohio. About forty miles above its confluence 
with the Mississippi, and on a beautiful eminence on the north bank 
of the river, they erected a fort and named it Fort Massac, in honor 
of the commander, M. Massac, who superintended its construction. 
This was the last fort erected by the French on the Ohio, and it was 
occupied by a garrison of French troops until the evacuation of the 
country under the stipulations of the treaty of Paris. Such was the 
origin of Fort Massac, divested of the romance which fable has 
thrown around its luime.":}; 

* Letter of Marquis Montcalm: Paris Documents, vol. 10, p. 901. 

t Hildreth's Pioneer History, p. 42. 

i Monette's Valley of the Mississippi, vol. 1, p. 317. Gov. Reynolds, who visited 
the remains of Fort Massac in 1855, thus describes its i-emains: " The outside walls 
were one hundred and thirty-five feet square, and at each angle strong bastions were 
erected. The walls were palisades, with earth between the wood. A large well was 
sunk in the fortress, and the whole appeared to have been strong and substantial in its 
day. Three or four acres of gravel walks were made on the north of the fort, on which 
the soldiers paraded. The walks were made in exact angles, and beautifully graveled 
with pebbles from the river. The site is one of the most beautiful on La Belle Rivere, 
and commands a view of the Ohio that is charming and lovely. French genius for the 
selection of sites for forts is eminently sustained in their choice of Fort Massacre." The 
Governor states that the foi't was first established in 1711, and "was enlarged and 
made a respectable fortress in 1756." Vide Reynolds' Life and Times, pp. 28, 29. This 
is, probably, a mistake. There are no records in the French official documents of any 
military post in that vicinity until the so-called French and Indian war. 



CHANGE OF WAR-PLAN. 227 

On the day following the evacuation, tlie English took peaceable 
possession of the snioking ruins of Fort Du Quesne. They erected 
a temporary fortification, named it Fort Pitt, in honor of the great 
English statesman of that name, and leaving two hundred men as a 
garrison, retired over the mountains. 

On the 5th of December, 1758, Thomas Pownall, governor of 
Massachusetts Bay Province, addressed a memorial to the British 
Ministry, suggesting that there should be an entire change in the 
method of carrying on the war. Pownall stated that the French 
were superior in battles fought in the wilderness ; that Canada never 
could be conquered by land campaigns ; that the proper way to 
succeed in. the reduction of Canada would be to make an attack on 
Quebec by sea, and thus, by cutting off supplies from the home gov- 
ernment, Canada would be starved out.* 

Pitt, if he did not act on the recommendations of Gov. Pownall, 
at least had similar views, and the next year (1759), in accordance 
with this plan. Gen. Wolfe made a successful assault on Quebec, and 
from that time, the supplies and reinforcements from the home gov- 
ernment being cut off, the cause of the French in Canada became 
almost hopeless. 

During this year the French made every effort to stir up the 
Indians north of the Ohio to take the tomahawk and scalping-knife 
in hand, and make one more attempt to preserve the northwest 
for the joint occupancy of the Gallic and American races. Emissa- 
ries were sent to Lake Erie, Detroit, Mackinaw, Ouiatanon,Vincennes, 
Kaskaskia and Fort Chartes, loaded with presents and ammunition, 
for the purpose of collecting all those stragglers who had not enter- 
prise enough to go voluntarily to the seat of war. Canada was hard 
pressed for soldiers ; the English navy cut off most of the rein- 

* Pownall's Administration of the Colonies, Appendix, p. 57. Thomas Pownall,, 
born in England in 1720, came to America in 1753; was governor of Massachusetts 
Bay, and subsequently was appointed governor of South Carolina. He was highly edu- 
cated, and possessed a thorough knowledge of the geography, history and policy of 
both the French and English colonies in America. His work on the "Administration 
of the American Colonies" passed through many editions. In 1756 he addressed a 
memorial to His Highness the Duke of Cumberland, on the conduct of the colonial war, 
in which he recommended a plan for its further prosecution. The paper is a very 
able one. Much of it compiled from the official letters of Marquis Vaudreuil, Governor- 
General of (yanada, written between the years 1743 and 1752, showing the policy of the 
French, and giving a minute description of their settlements, military establishments 
in the west, their manner of dealing with the Indians, and a description of the river 
communications of the French between their possessions in Canada and Louisiana. In 
1776 he revised Evans' celebrated map of the " Middle British Provinces in America." 
After his return to England he devoted himself to scientific pursuits. He was a warm 
friend of the American colonists in the contest with the mother country, and de- 
nounced the measures of parliament concerning the colonies as harsh and wholly 
unwarranted, and predicted the result that followed. He died in 1805. 



228 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

forcenients from France, while the Englisli, on the contrary, were 
constantly receiving troops from the mother country. 

Mons. de Aubry, commandant at Fort ('hartes, persuaded four 
hundred men from the "Illinois country"' to i'ollow him eastward. 
Taking with him two hundred thousand pounds of flour, he em- 
barked his heterogeneous force in bateaux and canoes. The route 
by way of the Ohio was closed ; the English were in possession of 
its headwaters. He went down the Mississippi, thence up the Ohio 
to the mouth of the Wabash. Having ascended the latter stream 
to the Miami villages, near the present site of Fort Wayne, his fol- 
lowers made the portage, passed down the Maumee, and entered 
■ Lake Erie. 

During the wdiole course of their journey they were being con- 
stantly reinforced by bands of different tribes of Indians, and by 
Canadian militia as they passed the several posts, until the army 
was augmented to sixteen hundred men, of whom there were six 
hundred French and one thousand Indians. An eye-witness, in 
speaking of the aj)pearance of the force, said : " When they passed 
the little rapid at the outlet of Lake Erie (at Bufi'alo ) the flotilla ap- 
peared like a floating island, as the river was covered with their 
bateaux and canoes."* 

Aubry was compelled to leave his flour and provisions at the 
Miami portage. He afterward i-equested M. de Port-neuf, com- 
mandant at Presque Isle, to take charge of the portage, and to send 
it constantly in his bateaux, f 

Before Aubry reached Presque Isle he was joined by other bodies 
of Indians and Canadians from the region of the upper lakes. They 
were under the command of French traders and commandants of 
interior posts. At Fort Machault:}: he was joined by M. de Lignery ; 
the latter had assembled the Ohio Indians at Presque Isle. >j It was 
.the original intention of Aubry to recapture Fort I)u Quesne from 
the English. On the 12th of July a grand council was held at Fort 
Machault, in which the commandant thanked the Indians for their 
attendance, threw down the war belt, and told them he would set 
out the next day for Fort Du Quesne. Soon after messengers arrived 
with a packet of letters for the officers. Aftei- reading them Aubry 
told the Indians: "Children, I have received bad news; the Eng- 
lish are gone against Niagara. We must give over thoughts of going 
down the river to Fort Du Quesne till we have cleared that place of" 

*Pouchot's Memoirs, vol. 1, pp. 186, 187 

tidem, p. 152. 

t Located at the mouth of French Creek, Pennsylvania. 

§ Idem, 187. 



aubky's campaign. 229 

the enemy. If it should be taken, our road to you is stopped, and 
you must become poor.'"' Orders were immediately given to pro- 
ceed with the artillery, provisions, etc., up French Creek, and the 
Indians prepared to follow." 

These letters were from M. Pouchot, commandant at Niagara, + 
and stated that he was besieged by a much superior force of English 
and Indians, who were under the command of Gen. Predeaux and 
Sir "William Johnson. Aubry answered these letters on the next day, 
and said he thought they niiglit fight the enemy successfully, and 
com])el them to raise the siege. The Indians who brought these mes- 
sages to Poucliot informed him that they, on the part of the Indians 
with Aubry and Lignery. had oftered the Iroquois and other Indian 
allies of the English five war belts if they would retire. These prom- 
ised that they would not mingle in the quarrel. " We will here recall 
the fact that Pouchot, by his letter of the 10th, had notified Lignery 
and Aubry that the enemy might be four or five thousand strong 
without the Indians, and if they could put themselves in condition 
to attack so large a force, he should pass Chenondac to come to 
Niagara by the other side of the river, where he would be in con- 
dition to drive the English, who were only two hundred strong on 
that side, and could not easily be reinforced. This done, they could 
easily come to him, because after the defeat of this body they could 
send bateaux to bring them to the fort." 

]\I. Poucliot now recalled his previous request, and informed 
Aubry that the enemy were in three positions, in one of which 
there were three thousand nine hundred Indians. He added, could 
Aubry succeed in driving the enemy from any of these positions, 
he had no d(nibt they would be foi'ced to raise the siege. :{: 

Aubry's route was up French Creek to its head-waters, thence 
making the portage to Presque Isle and sailing along the shores of 
Lake Erie until he reached Niagara. Arriving at the foot of Lake 
Erie he left one hundred and fift}' men in charge of his canoes, and 
with the remainder advanced toward Niagara. Sir William John- 
son was informed, on the evening of the 23d, of this advance of the 
French, and ordered his light infantry and pickets to take post on 
the left, on the road between Niagara Falls and the fort; and these, 
after reinforcing them with grenadiers and parts of the 46th and 44th 
regiments, were so arranged as to eflfectually support the guard left 

* Extract from a letter dated July 17, 1759, of Col. Mercer, commandant at Fort 
Pitt, published in Craig's Olden Time, vol. 1, p. 194. 

t Fort jSTiajrara was one of the earliest French military posts, and situated on the 
right, or American shore of Lake Ontario, at the mouth of Niagara River. It has 
figured conspicuously in all of the wars on the lake frontier. 

t Pouchot 's Memoirs, vol. 1, pp. 186, 187, 188. 



230 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

in the trenches. Most of his men were concealed either in the 
trendies or by trees. 

On the morning of the 24th the French made their appearance. 
They were marcliing along a path about eight feet wide, and "were 
in readiness to fight in close order and without ranks or files." On 
their right were thirty Indians, who formed a front on the enemy's 
left. The Indians of the English army advanced to speak to those 
of the French. Seeing the Iroquois in the latter' s company, the 
French Indians refused to advance, under pretext that they were at 
peace with the first named. Though thus abandoned by their chief 
force, Aubry and Lignery still proceeded on their way, thinking 
that the few savages they saw were isolated men, till they reached 
a narrow pathway, when they discovered great numbers beyond. 
The English Indians then gave the war-whoop aitd the action com- 
menced. The English regulars attacked the French in front, while 
the Indians poured in on their flank. Thus surprised by an am- 
buscade, and deserted by their savage allies, the French proved easy 
victims to the prowess of far superior numbers. They were assailed 
in front and rear by two thousand men. The rear of the column, 
unable to resist, gave way, and left the head exposed to the enemy's 
fire, which crushed it entirely. An Indian massacre followed, and 
the pursuit of the victors continued until they were compelled to 
desist by sheer fatigue. Almost all the French officers were killed, 
wounded or taken prisoners. Among the latter was Aubry. Those 
who escaped joined M. Rocheblave, and with his detachment re- 
treated to Detroit and other western lake posts.* 

This defeat on the shores of Lake Erie was very severe on the 
struggling western settlements. Most all of the able-bodied men 
had gone with Aubry, many never to return. In 1760 M. de Mac- 
Carty, commandant at Fort Chartes, in a letter to Marquis Vaudreuil, 
stated that "the garrison was weaker than ever before, the check at 
Niagara having cost him the elite of his men. "f 

It is apparent, from the desertion of Aubry by his savage allies, 
that they perceived that the English were certain to conquer in the 
end. They felt no particular desire to prop a falling cause, and 
thus deserted Mons. Aubry at the crisis whcji their assistance was 
most needed. Thus was defeated the greatest P^rench-Indian force 
ever collected in the northwest. :{: 

* The account of this action has been compiled from Mante,, p. 226; Pouchot, vol. 1, 
p. 192; and (iarneau's History of Canada, vol. 2, pp. 250, 251, Bell's translation. 

t Paris Documents, vol. 10, p. 1093. 

X Aubry returned to Louisiana and i-emained there until after the peace of 1763. 
In 1765 he was appointed <;overnor of Louisiana, and surrendered the colony, in March, 



THE DOWNFALL OF FRENCH RULE. 231 

The next day after Aubry's defeat, near P'ort Niagara, the fortress 
surrendered. 

After the surrender of Niagara and Fort Du Quesne, the Indian 
allies of France retired to the deej) recesses of the western forests, 
and the English frontiers suffered no more from their depredations. 
Settlements were gradually formed on the western side of the Alle- 
ghanies, and they remained secure from Indian invasions. 

In the meantime many Canadians, becoming satisfied that the 
conquest of Canada was only a mere question of time, determined, 
before that event took place, to remove to the French settlements 
on the lower Mississippi. *'Many of them accordingly dei)arted 
from Canada by way of the lakes, and thence through the Illinois 
and "Wabash Eivers to the Mississippi."- 

After the su^ender of Quebec, in 1759, Montreal became the 
headquarters of the French in Canada, and in the spring of 1760 
Mons. Levi, the French commander-in-chief, besieged Quebec. The 
arrival of an English fleet compelled him to relinquish his designs. 
Amherst and Johnson formed a junction, and advanced against 
Montreal. The French governor of Canada, Marquis Yaudreil, 
believing that further resistance was impossible, surrendered all 
Canada to the English. This included the western posts of Detroit, 
Mackinaw, Fort Miami, Ouiatanon, Vincennes, Fort St. Joseph, 
etc. 

After this war ceased to be waged in America, though the ti*eaty 
of Paris was not concluded until February, 1763, the most essential 
parts of which are contained in the following extracts : 

" In order to establish peace on solid and durable foundations, 
and to remove forever all subjects of dispute with regard to the 
limits of the British and French territories on the continent of 
America, it is agreed that for the futui'e the confines between the 
dominions of his Britannic Majesty and those of Ilis Most Christian 
Majesty in that part of the world, shall be fixed irrevocably by a 
line drawn along the middle of the Biver Mississippi from its source 
to the Biver Iberville, and from thence by a line drawn along the 
middle of this river and the lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, to 
the sea ; and for this purpose the most Christian King cedes, in full 
right, and guarantees to his Britannic Majesty, the river and port of 
Mobile, and everything which he ])0ssesses, or ought to possess, <>n 
the left side of the Mississippi, with the exception of the town of 

1766, to the Spanish governor, Ulloa. After the expulsion of Ulloa, he held the 
government until relieved by O'Reilly, in July, 1769. He soon afterward sailed for 
France. The vessel was lost, and Aubry perished in the depths of the sea. 
* Monette's Valley of the Mississippi, vol. 1, p. 305. 



232 HLSTOIllC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

New Orleans and of the island on which it is situated ; it being well 
understood tliat the navigation of the Mississi})}ji shall be equally 
free, as well to the subjects of Great JJi-itain as to those of France, 
in its whole length and breadth, from its source to the sea. ""'^ 

Thus Gallic rule came to an end in North America. Its downfall 
was the result of natural causes, and was owing largely to the differ- 
ence between the Frenchmen and the Englishmen. The former, as 
ii rule, gave no attention to agriculture, but found occupation in 
hunting and trading with the Indians, acquiring nomadic habits that 
unfitted them for the cultivation of the soil ; their families dwelt in 
villages se|)arated by wide stretches of wilderness. While the able 
men were hunting and trading, the old men, women and children 
produced scanty crops sown in "common fields," or inclosures of a 
piece of ground which were portioned off among t\e families of the 
vnllage. The Englishman, on the other hand, loved to own land, 
and pushed his improvements from the coast line up through all the 
valleys extending westward. Heaching the summit of the Allegha- 
nies, the tide of emigration flowed into the valleys beyond. Every 
cabin was a fort, every advancing farm a new line of intrenchment. 
The distinguishing characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon is consistency 
and firmness in his designs, and, more than all, his love for a home. 
In the trials and hardships necessarily connected with the oj^ening 
up of the wilderness these traits come prominently into play. .The 
result was, that the English colonies prospered in a degree hitherto 
uidvnown in the annals of the world's progress. And by way of con- 
trast, how little did the French have to show in the way of lasting- 
improvements in the northwest after it had been in their possession 
for nearly a century ! 

However, the very traits that disqualified the Gaul as a successful 
colonist gave him a preeminent advantage over the Anglo-Saxon in 
the influence he exerted upon the Indian. He did not want their 

*"0n the 3d day of the previous November, France, by a secret treaty ceded 
to Spain all her possessions west of the Mississippi. His Most Christian Majesty 
made known to the inhabitants of Louisiana the fact of the cession by a letter, dated 
April 21, 17G-1. Don Ulloa, the New Spanish jjovernor, ai-rived at New Orleans 
in 1766. The French inhabitants objected to the transfer of Louisiana to Spain, and, 
resortinuf to arms, compelled Ulloa to return to Havana. In 176!J, O'Reilly, with a 
Spanish force, arrived and took possession. He killed six of the rintjleaders and sent 
others to Cuba. Spain remained in possession of Louisiana until March, 1801, when 
Louisiana was retroeeded to the French republic. The French made preparations to 
•occupy Lousiana, and an army of twenty-five thousand men was desijjned for that 
territory, but the fleet and army were suddenly blockaded in one of the ports of Hol- 
land by an Entj'lish squadron. This occurrence, together with the jrloomy aspect of 
uffairs in Europe, induced Napoleon, who was then at the head of the French republic, 
to cede Louisiana to the United States. The tueaty was dated April 30, 1803. The 
actual transfer occurred in December of the same year." Vide Stoddard's Sketches of 
Louisiana, pp. 71, 102. 



FRENCH WAYS WITH TH K INDIANS. 238 

lands ; he fraternized with them, adopted their ways, and flattered 
and pleased them. The Anglo-Saxon wanted their lands. From 
the start he was clamorous for deeds and cessions of territory, and 
at once began crowding the Indian out of the country. "The Iro- 
quois t(dd Sir \Vm. Johnson that they believed soon they should not 
be able t<^) hunt a bear into a hole in a ti'ee but some Englishman 
would claim a right to the property of it, as being found in his 
tree. *"■'■■ 

The happiness which the Indians enjoyed from their intercourse 
with the French was their perpetual theme ; it was their golden age. 
''Those who are old enough to remember it speak of it with rap- 
ture, and teach their children to venerate it, as the ancients did the 
reign of Saturn. ' You call us your children, ' said an aged chief to 
Gen. Harrison, ' wjiy do you not make us happy, as our fathers the 
French did ? They never took from us our lands, which, indeed, 
were in common between us. They planted where they pleased, 
and cut wood where they pleased, and so did we ; but now, if a poor 
Indian attempts to take a little bark from a tree to covel" him from 
the rain, up comes a white man and threatens to shoot him, claim- 
ing the tree as his own." " + 

*Pownairs Administration of the Colonies, 
t Memoirs of Gen. Harrison, p. 134. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

PONTIAC'S WAR TO RECOVER THE NORTHWEST FROM THE ENGLISH. 

After the surrender of Canada to the English by the Marquis 
Vaudreuil, Sir Jeffery Amherst, coinnuiiider-iu-chief of His Majesty's 
forces in North America, ordered Major Robert Rogers to ascend 
the lakes and take possession of the western forts. On the 13th of 
September Rogers, with two hundred of his rangers, left Montreal. 
After weeks of weary traveling, they readied the mouth of Cuyahoga 
River, the present site of Cleveland, on the Tth of November. Here 
they were met by Pontiac, a celebrated Ottawa chieftain, who asked 
Rogers what his intentions were, and how he dared enter that coun- 
try without his permission. Rogers replied that the French had 
been defeated ; that Canada was surrendered into the hands of the 
British ; and that he was on his way to take possession of Detroit, 
Mackinaw, Miamis and Ouitanon. He also proposed to restore a 
general peace to white men and Indians alike. "Pontiac listened 
with attention, but only replied that he should stand in the path of 
the English until morning."" In the morning he returned, and 
allowed the English to advance. He said there would be no trouble 
so long as the}' treated him with deference and respect. 

Embarking on the 12th of November, they arrived in a few days 
at Maumee Bay, at the western end of Lake Erie. The western 
Indians, to the number of four hundred, had collected at the mouth 
of Detroit River. They were determined to massacre the entire party 
under Rogers. It afterward apjxnired that they were acting under 
the influence of the French commandant at Detroit. Rogers pre- 
vailed upon Pontiac to use his influence to induce the warlike 
Indians to disband. After some parleying, Pontiac succeeded, and 
the road was open to Detroit. 

Before his arrival at Detroit Rogers had sent in advance Lieuten- 
ant Brehm with a letter to Captain Beletre, the commandant, inform- 
ing the latter that his garrison was included in the surrender of 
Canada. Beletre wholly disregarded the letter. He declared he 
thought it was a trick of the English, and that they intended to 
obtain possession of his fortress by treachery. He made use of 
every endeavor to excite the Indians against the English. "He 



DETROIT SURKENDEUED. 235 

displayed upon a p(jle, before the yelling multitude, the effigy of a 
crow pecking a man's head, the crow representing himself, and the 
head, observes Rogers, 'being meant for my own.' ''* 

Rogers then sent forward C^iptain C^ampbell *• witli a copy of the 
capitulation and a letter from the Marquis Vaudreuil, directing that 
the place should be given up in accordance with the articles agreed 
upon between him and General Amherst." The French command- 
ant could hold out no longer, and, nmch against his will, was com- 
pelled to deliver the fortress to the English. The lilies of France 
were lowered from the flagstaff, and their place was taken by the 
cross of St. George. Seven hundred Indian warriors and their 
families, all of whom had aided the French by murdering innocent 
women and children on the frontiers of Pennsylvania and New York, 
greeted the change with demoniacal yells of apparent })leasure ; but 
concealed in their^ breasts was a natural dislike for the English. 
Dissembling for the present, they kept their hatred to themselves, 
for the late successes of British arms had awed them into silence. 

It was on the 29th of November, 1700, that Detroit was given 
over to the English. The garrison, as prisoners of war, were taken 
to Philadelphia. 

Rogers sent an officer up the Maumee, and from thence down the 
Wabash, to take possession of the posts at the portage and at Oui- 
atanon. Both of these objects were attained without any difficulty. 

On account of the lateness of the season the detachment which 
liad started for Mackinaw returned to Detroit, and all efforts against 
the posts on the upper lakes were laid aside until the following sea- 
son. In that year the English took possession of Mackinaw, Green 
Bay and St. Joseph. The French still retained possession of Yin- 
cennes and Fort Chartes.+ 

It always was the characteristic policy of the French to render 
the savages dependent upon them, and with that design in view they 
had earnestly endeavored to cultivate among the Indians a desire for 
Euro})ean goods. By prevailing upon the Indians to throw aside 
hides and skins of wild beasts for clothing of European manufacture, 
to discontinue the use of their pottery for cooking utensils of iron, 
to excliange the bow and arrow and stone wea})ons for the gun, the 
knife and hatchet of French manufacture, it was thought that in the 
course of one or two generations they would become dependent upon 
their French neighbors for the common necessaries of life. When 

* Paikraan's Conspiracy of Pontiac, p. 150. 

t This account of the delivery of the western forts to Rogers has been collated from 
his Journal and from Parkman's Conspiracy of Pontiac. 



236 HISTORIC notp:s on the northwest. 

this cliange in tlieir customs luid taken place, by simply withholding 
the supply of ammunition they could coerce the savages to adopt any 
measures that the French government saw fit to propose. The pol- 
icy of the French was not to force, but to lead, the savages into sub- 
jection. The}^ told the barbarians that they were the children of the 
great king, who had sent his people among them to preserve them 
from their implacable enemies, the English. Flattering them, asking 
their advice, bestowing upon them presents, and, above all, showing 
them respect and deference, the French gained the good will of tlie 
savages in a degree that no other European nation ever equaled. 
After the surrender of the western posts all this was changed. The 
accustomed presents formerly bestowed upon them were withheld. 
English traders robbed, bullied and cheated them. English officers 
treated them with rudeness and contempt. But, most of all, the 
steady advance of the English colonists over the mountains, occupy- 
ing their lands, driving away their game, and forcing them to retire 
farther west, alarmed and exasperated the aborigines to the limit of 
endurance. "The wrongs and neglect the Indians felt were inflamed 
by the French coureurs de hois and traders. They had every motive 
to excite the tribes against the English, such as their national rancor, 
their religious antipathies, and most especially the fear of losing the 
profitable Indian trade." Every efi'ort was made to excite and in- 
flame the slumbering passions of the tribes of the Northwest. Secret 
councils were held, and diff'erent plans for obtaining possession of 
the western fortresses wepe discussed. The year after Rogers ob- 
tained Detroit there was, in the summer, an outbreak, but it was 
easily quelled, being only local. The next year, also, there was 
another disturbance, but it, like the former, did not spread. 

During these two years one Indian alone, — Pontiac, — compre- 
hended the situation. He read correctly the signs and portents of 
the times. He well knew that English supremacy on the North 
American continent meant the destruction of his race. He saw the 
great difierence between the English and the French. The former 
were settlers, the latter traders. The French came to the far west 
for their beaver skins and peltries, while the English would only be 
satisfied with their lands. Pontiac soon arrived at the conclusion 
that unless the ceaseless flow of English immigration was stopped, 
it would not be many decades before the Indian race would be 
driven from the face of the earth. Well has time justified this opin- 
ion of the able Indian chieftain ! 

To accoini)lish his designs, Pontiac was well aware that he must 
induce all the tribes of the northwest to join him. Even then he 



PONTIAC'S WAK. J.:',! 

had doubts of final success. To encourage him, the French traders 
informed him "that the English had stolen Canada while their com- 
mon father was asleep at Versailles ; that he would soon awaken and 
again wrest his domains from the intruders ; that even now large 
French armies were on their way up the St. Lawrence and Missis- 
sippi rivers." Pontiac believed these tales, for let it be borne in 
mind that this was previous to the treaty of Paris, and late in the 
autumn of 1762 he sent emissaries with black wampum and the red 
tomahawk to the villages of the Ottawas, Pottawatomies, Sacs, 
Foxes, Menominees, Illinois, Miamis, Shawnees, Delawares, Wyan- 
dots, Kickapoos and Senecas. These emissaries were instructed to 
inform the various tribes that the English had determined to exter- 
minate the northwestern Indians ; to accomplish this they intended 
to erect numerous fortifications in the territory named ; and also 
that the English had induced the southern Indians to aid them.* To 
avert these inimical designs of the English, the messengers of Pon- 
tiac proposed that on a certain day all the tribes, by concerted action, 
should seize all the English posts and then attack the whole English 
border. 

Pontiac' s plan was contrived and developed with wonderful 
secrecy, and all of a sudden the conspiracy burst its fury simultane- 
ously over all the forts held by the British west of the Alleghanies. 
By stratagem or forcible assault every garrison west of Pittsburgh, 
excepting Detroit, was captured. 

Fort St. Joseph, on the river of that name, in the present state of 
Michigan, was captured by the Pottawatomies. These emissaries of 
Pontiac collected about the fort on the 23d of May, 1763, and under 
the guise of friendship eflected an entrance within the palisades, 
when they suddenly turned upon and massacred tlie whole garrison, 
except the commandant. Ensign Slussee and three soldiers, whom 
they made prisoners and sent to Detroit. 

The Ojibbeways effected an entry within the defenses of Fort 
Mackinaw, the gate being left open while the Indians were amusing 
the ofiicer and soldiers with a game of ball. In the play the ball 
was knocked over within the palisade. The players, hurrying 
through the gates, seemingly intent on regaining the ball, seized 
their knives and guns from beneath the blankets of their squaws, 
where they had been purposely concealed, and commenced an indis- 
criminate massacre, t 

* The Chickasaws and Cherokees were at that time, though on their own responsi- 
bility, waging war aginst some of the tribes of the northwest. 

tA detailed account of this most horrible massacre is given by the fur-trader Alex- 



238 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST, 

Ensign Ilolnies, who was in ccnnniand at Fort Miami,* learned 
that to the Miainis in the vicinity of his post was allotted the de- 
struction of his garrison. Holmes collected the Indians in an 
assembly, and charged them with forming a consi)iracy against his 
post. They confessed ; said that they were influenced by hostile 
Indians, and promised to relinquish their designs. The village of 
Pontiac was within a sliort distance of the post, and some of his im- 
mediate followers doubtless attended the assembly. Holmes sup- 
posed he had partially allayed t]ieir irritation, as appears from a 
letter written ftom him to Major Gladwyn.f 

On the 2Tth of May a young Indian squaw, who was the mistress 
of Holmes, requested him to visit a sick Indian woman who lived in 
a wigwam near at hand. " Having confidence in the girl. Holmes 
followed her out of the fort." Two Indians, who were concealed 
behind the hut, as he approached it, fired and "stretched him life- 
less on the ground.". The sergeant rushed outside of the palisade 
to learn the cause of the firing. He was immediately seized by the 
Indians. The garrison, who by this time had become thoroughly 
alarmed, and had climbed uj^on the palisades, was ordered to surren- 
der by one Godefroy, a Canadian. They were informed, if they 
submitted their lives would be spared, otherwise they all would be 
massacred. Having lost their officers and being in great terror, they 
threw open the gate and gave themselves up as prisoners. Accord- 
ing to tradition, the garrison was afterward massacred. :|: 

Fort Ouiatanon was under the command of Lieut. Jenkins, who 
had no suspicion of any Indian troubles, and on the 1st of June, 
when he was requested by some of the Indians to visit them in their 
cabins near by, he unhesitatingly complied with the request. Upon 
his entering the h'ut he was immediately seized by the Indian war- 
riors. Through various other stratagems of a similar nature several 
of the soldiers were also taken. Jenkins was then told to have the 
soldiers in the fort suri*ender. "For," said the Indians, "should 
your men kill one of our braves, we shall put you all to death." 

ander Henry, an eye-witness and one of the few survivors, in his interesting Book of 
Travels and Adventures, p. 85. 
* Now Fort Wavne. 

Fort Mi AMIS, March 30th, 1763. 

t Since my Last Letter to You, wherein I Acquainted You of the Bloody Belt being 
in this Village, I have made all the search I could about it. and have found it not to be 
True; Whereon I Assembled all the chiefs of this Nation, & after a long and trouble- 
some Spell with them, T Obtained the Belt, with a Speech, as You will Receive En- 
closed; This affiiir is very timely Stopt, and 1 hope the News of a Peace will put a 
Stop to any further Troubles with these Indians, who are the Principal Ones of Setting 
Mischief on Foot. I send you the Belt, with this Packet, which I hope You will For- 
ward to the General. 

X Brice's History of Fort Wayne. 



PONTIAC'S FAILURE. 239 

Jenkins thinking that resistance would be useless, ordered the re- 
maining sokliers to deliver the fort to the Indians. During the 
night the Indians resolved to break their plighted word, and mas- 
sacre all their prisoners. Two of the French residents, M. M. Mai- 
gonville and Lorain, gave the Indians valuable presents, including 
wampum, brandy, etc., and thus preserved the lives of the English 
captives. Jenkins, in his letter to Major Gladwyn, commandant at 
Detroit, states that the Weas were not favorably inclined toward 
Pontiac's designs ; but being coerced by the surrounding tribes, they 
undertook to carry out their part of the programme. Well did they 
succeed. Lieut. Jenkins, with the other prisoners, were, within a 
few days afterward, sent across the prairies of Illinois to Fort Cliar- 
tres. 

Detroit held out, though regularly besieged by Pontiac in person, 
for more than fifteen months, when, at last, the suifering garrison 
was relieved by the approach of troops under Gen. Bradstreet. In 
the meantime Pontiac confederates, wearied and disheartened by the 
protracted struggle, longed for peace. Several tribes abandoned the 
declining fortune of Pontiac ; and finally the latter gave up the con- 
test, and retired to the neighborhood of Fort Miamis. Here he 
remained for several months, when he went westward, down the 
Wabash and across the prairies to Fort Chartres. The latter fort 
remained in possession of a French officer, not having been as yet 
surrendered to the English, the hostility of the Indians preventing 
its delivery ; and by agreements of the two governments, France 
and England, it was left in charge of the veteran St. Ange. 

The English having acquired the territory herein considered, by 
conquest and treaty, from France, renewed their eff'orts to reclaim 
authority over it from its aboriginal inhabitants. To eff'ect this 
object, they now resort to conciliation and diplomacy. They sent 
westward George Croghan."- 

After closing a treaty witli the Indians at Fort Pitt, Ci'oghan 
started on his misMon on the 15th of May 1765, going down the 
Ohio in two bateaux. His movements were known to the hostile 

* Croghan was an old trader who had spent his life among the Indians, and was 
versed in their language, ways and habits of thought, and who well knew how to flat- 
ter and cajole them. Besides this, Croghan enjoyed the advantage of a personal ac- 
quaintance with many of the chiefs and principal men of the Wabash tiibes, who had 
met him while trading at Pickawillany and other places where he had trading estab- 
lishments. Among the Miami, Wea and Piankashaw bands Croghan had many Indian 
friends whose attachments toward him were very warm. He was a veteran, up to all 
the arts of the Indian council house, and had in years gone by conducted many impor- 
tant treaties between the authorities of New York and Pennsylvania with the Iroquois, 
Delawares and Shawnees. In the war for the fur trade Croghan suffered severely; the 
French captured his traders, confiscated his goods, and bankrupted his fortune. 



240 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

tribes. A war party of eiglity Kickapoos and Mascoutins, "spirited 
up " to the act by the French traders at Ouiatanon, as Croghan says 
in his Journal, left the latter place, and captured Croghan and his 
party at daybreak on the Sth of June, in the manner narrated in a 
previous chapter." He was carried to Vincennes, his captors con- 
ducting him a devious course through marshes, tangled forests and 
small prairie, to the latter place, f 

After Croghan had procured wearing apparel (his captors had 
stripped him well-nigh naked) and purchased some horses he 
crossed the "Wabash,- and soon entered the great prairie which he 
describes in extracts we have ah'eady taken from his journal. His 
route was up through Crawford, Edgar and Yermilion counties, fol- 
lowing the old traveled trail running along the divide between the 
Embarrass and the Wabash, and which was a part of the great high- 
way leading from Detroit to Kaskaskia ; :{; crossed the Vermilion 
River near Danville, thence along the trail thi'ough Wai'ren county, 
Indiana. Croghan, still a prisoner in charge of his captors, reached 
Ouiatonon on the afternoon of tlie 23d of June.g Here the AVeas, 

*P. 161. 

tCioghan, in his Journal, says: "I found Vincennes a village of eighty or ninety 
French families, settled on the east side of the river, being one of the finest situations 
that can be found. The French inhabitants hereabouts are an idle, lazy people, a 
parcel of renegadoes from Canada, and are much worse than the Indians. They took 
secret pleasure at our misfortune, and the moment we arrived they came to the Indians, 
exchanging, ti-ifles for their valuable plunder. Here is likewise an Indian village of 
Piankashaws, who were much displeased with the party that took me, telling them 
that ' our and your chiefs are gone to make peace, and you have begun war, for which 
our women and children will have reason to cry.' Port Vincent is a place of great 
consequence for trade, being a fine hunting country all along the Wabash." 

X That part of the route from Kaskaskia east, from the earliest settlement of Illi- 
nois and Indiana, was called "the old Vmcennes trace." "This trace," says Gov. 
Reynolds, in his Pioneer History of Illinois, p. 79, "was celebrated in Illinois. The 
Indians laid it out more than one hundred and fifty years ago. It commenced at 
Detroit, thence to Ouiatonon, on the Wabash, thence to Vincennes and thence to Kas- 
kaskia. It was the Appian way of Illinois in ancient times. It is yet (in 1852) visible 
in many places between Kaskaskia and Vincennes." H was also visible for years after 
the white settlements began, between the last place, the Vermilion and Ouiatonon, on 
the route described. — [Author. 

§ Croghan says of Ouiatonon that there wei-e " about fourteen French families liv- 
ing in the fort, which stands on the )W7-th side of the river; that the Kickapoos and 
Mascoutins, whose warriors had taken us, live nigh the fort, on the same side of the 
river, where they have two villages, and the Ouicatonons or Wawcottonans [as Croghan 
variously spells the name of the WeasJ have a village on the south side of the river." 
"On the south side of the Wabash runs a high bank, in which are several very fine 
coal mmes, and behind this bank is a very large meadow, clear for several miles." The 
printer made a mistake in setting up Croghan's manuscript, or else Croghan himself 
committed an unintentional error in his diary in substituting the word south for north 
in describing the side of the river on which the appearances of coal banks are found. The 
only locality on the banks of the Wabash, above the Vermilion, where the carbonifer- 
ous shales resembling coal are exposed is on the west, or north l)ank, of the river, about 
four miles above Independence, at a pl.ace known as ''Black Rock/'' which, says Prof. 
Collett, in his report on the geology of Warren county, Indiana, published in the Geolog- 
ical Survey of Indiana for 1873, pp. 224-5, " is a notable and romantic feature in the river 
scenery." "A precipitous or overhanging cliff exhibits an almost sheer descent of a 



SUCCESS OF CROGHAN'S MISSION. 241 

from the opposite side of the river, took great interest in Mr. 
(Voglian, and were deeply "concerned at what had happened. 
They charged the Kickapoos and Mascoutins to take the greatest 
care of liini. and the Indians and white men captured with him, nntil 
their chiefs shoukl arrive from Fort Charti'cs, whither they had gone, 
some time before, to meet liim, and who were necessarily ignorant of 
his being captured on his way to the same place." From the 4th to 
the Sth of July Croghan held conferences with the Weas, Pianke- 
shaws, Kickapoos and Mascoutins, in which, he says, "I was lucky 
enough to reconcile those nations to His Majesty's interests, and ob- 
tained their consent to take possession of the posts in their country 
which the French formerly possessed, and they offered their services 
should any nation oppose our taking such possession, all of which they 
confirmed by four large pipes."* On the 11th a messenger arrived 
from Fort Chartres requesting the Indians to take Croghan and his 
party thither ; and as Fort Chartres was the place to which he had 
originally designed going, he desired the chiefs to get ready to set 
out with him for that place as soon as possible. On the 13tli the 
chiefs from "the Miamis" came in and renewed their "ancient 
friendshij) with His Majesty." On the ISth Croghan, with his party 
and the chiefs of the Miami and other tribes we have mentioned, 
forming an imposing procession, started off across the country 
toward Fort Chartres. On the way (neither Croghan' s official report 
or his private journal show the place) they met the great "Pontiac 
himself, together with the deputies of the Iroquois, Delawares and 
Shawnees,t who had gone on around to Fort Chartres with Capt. 

hundred and forty feet to the Wabash, at its foot. The top is composed of yellow, red, 
brown or black conglomerate sandrock, highly ferruginous, and in part pebbly. At the 
base of the sandrock, where it joins upon the underlying carbonaceous and pyritous 
shales are ■ pot ' or ' rock-houses, ' which so constantly accompany this formation in 
southern Indiana. Some of these, of no great height, have been tunneled back under 
the cliff to a distance of thirty or forty feet by force of the ancient river once flowing 
at this level." The position, in many respects, is like Starved Rock, on the Illinois, 
where La Salle built Fort St. Louis, and commands a fine view of the Wea plains, 
across the inver eastward, and, before the recent growth of timber, of an arm of the 
Grand Prairie to the westward. The stockade fort and trading-post of Ouiatonon has 
often been confounded with the Wea villages, which were strung for several miles along 
the margin of the prairie, near the river, between Attica and La Fayette, on the south 
or east side of the river; and some writers have mistaken it for the village oi Keth- 
tjp-e-ca-nuk, situated on the north bank of the Wabash River, near the mouth of the 
Tippecanoe. The fort was abandoned as a military post after its capture from the 
British by the Indians. It was always a place of considerable trade to the English, as 
well as the French. Thomas Hutchins, in his Historical and Topographical Atlas, pub- 
lished in 1778, estimates "the annual amount of skins. and furs obtained at Ouiatonon 
at forty thousand dollars." 

* Croghans official report to Sir Wm. Johnson: London Documents, vol. 7, p. 780. 

t These last-named Indian deputies, with Mr. Frazer , had gone down the Ohio with 
Croghan, and thence on to Fort Chartres. Not hearing anything from Croghan, or 
knowing what had become of him, Pontiac and these Indian deputies, on learning that 
Croghan was at Ouiatanon, set out for that place to meet him. 
16 



242 HISTOKIC NOTES OX THE NOKTHWEST. 

Frazer. Tlie wliole ['ai-tj, with deputies from tlie Illinois Indians, 
now returned to Ouiatanon, and there held another conference, in 
which were settled all matters with the Illinois Indians. " Pontiac 
and the Illinois deputies agreed to everything which the other tribes 
had conceded in the previous conferences at Ouiatanon, all of which 
was ratified with a solemn formality of ])ij)es and belts."* 

Here, then, upon the banks of the Wabash at Ouiatonon, did the 
Indian tribes, with the sanction of Pontiac, solemnly surrender pos- 
session of the northwest territory to the accredited agent of Great 
Britain, f Croghan and his party, now swollen to a large body by 
the accession of the principal chiefs of the several nations, set out 
"for the Miamis, and traveled the whole way through a fine ricli 
bottom, alongside the Ouabache, arriving at Eel River on the 27th. 
About six miles up this river they found a small village of the 
Tioightwee^ situated on a very delightful spot of ground on the bank 
of the river.":}: Croghan's private journal continues: "July 28th, 
29th, 30th and 31st we traveled still alongside the Eel River, passing 
through fine clear woods and some good meadows, though not so 
large as those we passed some days before. The country is more 
overgrown with woods, the soil is sufficiently rich, and well watered 
with springs." 

On the 1st of August they "arrived at the carrying place be- 
tween the River Miamis and the Ouabache, which is about nine miles 
long in dry seasons, but not above half that length in freshets." 
"Within a mile of the Twightwee village," says Croghan, "I was 
met by the chiefs of that nation, who received us very kindly. Most 
part of these Indians knew me, and conducted me to their village, 
where they immediately hoisted an English flag that / had formerly 
given them at Fort Pitt. The next day they held a council, after 
which they gave me up all the English prisoners they had, and ex- 
pressed the pleasure it gave them to see [that] the unhappy difl'er- 
ences which had embroiled the several nations in a war with their 
brethren, the English, were now so near a happy conclusion, and 
that peace was established in their country. "§ 

* Croghan's official report, already quoted. 

t It is true that Pontiac, with deputies of all the westward tribes, followed Croghan 
to Detroit, where another conference took place; but this was only a moi-e formal rati- 
fication of the surrender which the Indians declared they had already made of the 
country at Ouiatonon. 

JThe Miami Indian name of this village was Ke-na-pa-com-a-qiia. Its French 
name was A I'Anguille, or Eel River town. The Miami name of Eel River was Kix- 
na-peei-kuoh Sepe, or Water Snake (the Indians call the eel a water-snake fish) River. 
The village was situated on the north bank of Eel River, about six miles from Logans- 
port. It was scattered along the river for some three miles. 

§The following is Mr. Croghan's description of the " Miamis," as it appeared in 



PONTIAC'S TRAGIC DEATH. 248 

From the Miamis the party proceeded down the Muuinee in 
canoes. "About ninety miles, continues the journal, from tlie Miamis 
or Twightwee we came to where a large river, that heads in a large 
'Z^6'A•,' falls into the Miami River; this they call 'The Forks.' 
The Ottawas claim this country and hunt here.* This nation for- 
merly lived at Detroit, but are now settled here on account of the 
richness of the country, where game is always to be found in plenty." 

From Defiance Croghan's party were obliged to drag their canoes 
several miles, "on account of the riffs which interrupt the naviga- 
tion," at the end of which they came to a village of Wyandottes, who 
received them kindly. From thence they proceeded in their canoes 
to the mouth of the Maumee. Passing several large bays and a 
number of rivers, they reached the Detroit River on the 16th of 
August, and Detroit on the following morning, f 

As for Pontiac, his fate was tragical. He was fond of the French, 
and often visited the Spanish post at St. Louis, whither many of his 
old friends had gone from the Illinois side of the river. One day in 
1767, as is supposed, he came to Mr. St. Ange (this veteran soldier 
of France still remained in the country), and said he was going over 
to Oahokia to visit the Kaskaskia Indians. St. Ange endeavored to 
dissuade him from it, reminding him of the little friendship existing 
between him and the British. Pontiac' s answer was : "Captain, I 
am a man. I know how to fight. I have always fought openly. 
They will not murder me, and if any one attacks me as a brave man, 

1765: "The Twightwee village is situated on both sides of a river called St. Joseph's. 
This river, where it falls into the Miami River, about a quarter of a mile from this 
place, is one hundred yards wide, o>i the east side of which stands a stockade fort some- 
what ruinous.'" The Indian village consists of about forty or fifty cabins, besides nine 
or ten French houses, a runaway colony from Detroit during the late Indian war; they 
were concerned in it, and being afraid of punishment came to this post, where they 
have ever since spirited up the Indians against the English. All the French residing 
here are a lazy, indolent people, fond of breeding mischief, and they should not be 
suffered to remain. The country is pleasant, the soil rich and well watered." 

*The place referred to is the mouth of the Auglaize, often designated as "The 
Forks " in many of the early accounts of the country. It may be noted that Croghan, 
like nearly all other early travelers, overestimates distances. 

t Croghan describes Detroit as a large stockade " inclosing about eighty houses. It 
stands on the north side of the river on a high bank, and commands a very pleasant 
prospect for nine miles above and below the fort. The country is thick settled with 
French. Their plantations are generally laid out about three or four acres in breadth 
on the river, and eighty acres in depth; the soil is good, producing plenty of grain. 
All the people here are generally poor wretches, and consist of three or four hundred 
French families, a lazy, idle people, depending chiefly on the savages for their subsist- 
ence. Though the land, with little labor, produces plenty of grain, they scarcely raise as 
much as will supply their wants, in imitation of Indians, whose manners and customs 
they have entirely adopted, and cannot subsist without them. The men, women and 
children speak the Indian tongue perfectly well." At the conclusion of the lengthj^ 
conferences with the Indians, in which all matters were " settled to their satisfaction," 
Croghan set out from Detroit for Niagara, coasting along the north shore of Lake Erie 
in a birch canoe, arriving at the latter place on the 8th of October. 



244 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

I ain his inatc-h.''' Poiitiac went over the river, was feasted, got 
(Iriiiik, and retired to the woods to sing medicine songs. In the 
meanwhile, an English merchant named Williamson bribed a Kas- 
kaskia Indian with a barrel of rum and promises of a greater reward 
if he would take Pontiac's life. Pontiac was struck with a pa-ka- 
ma-gon — tomahawk, and his skull fractured, causing death. This 
murder aroused the vengeance of all the Indian tribes friendly to 
Pontiac, and brought about the war resulting in the almost total ex- 
termination of the Illinois nation. He was a remarkably fine-looking 
man, neat in his person, and tasty in dress and in the arrangement 
of his ornaments. His complexion is said to have approached that 
of the whites.* St. Ange, hearing of Pontiac's death, kindly took 
charge of the body, and gave it a decent burial near the fort, the 
site of which is now covered by the city of St. Louis. "Neither 
mound nor tablet," says Francis Parkman, "marked the burial- 
place of Pontiac. For a mausoleum a city has arisen above the for- 
est hue, and the race whom he hated with such burning rancor tram- 
ple with unceasing footsteps over his forgotten grave." 

*I. N. Nicollet's Report, etc., p. 81. Mr. Nicollet received his information con- 
cerning Pontiac from Col. Pierre Chouteau, of St. Louis, and Col. Pierre Menard, of 
Kaskaskia, who were personally acquainted with the facts. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



GEN. CLARK'S CONQUEST OF "THE ILLINOIS." 

After the Indians had submitted to Englisli rule "the west en- 
joyed a period of quiet. When the American cohjnists, hjng com- 
phiining against the oppressive acts of the mother country, broke 
out into open revolt, and the war of the revolution fairly began, 
the English, from the w^estward posts of Detroit, Yincennes and 
Kaskaskia, incited the Indians 
against the frontier settlements, 
and from these depots supplied 
their war parties with guns aiid 
ammunition. The depredations 
of the Indians in Kentucky were 
so severe that in the fall of 1777 
George Rogers Clark conceived, 
and next year executed, an expe- 



dition against the French settle- 
ments of Kaskaskia and Yin- 
cennes, which not only relieved 
Kentucky from the incursions 
of the savages, but at the same 
time resulted in consequences 
which are without parallel in the 

1 +' 4.1 AT 4-\ i. -•" GEN. CLARK. 

annals ot tlie JNortliwest. " 




*Gen. Clark' was born in Albemarle county, Virginia, on the 19th of November, 
1752, and died and was buried at Locust Grove, near Louisville, Kentucky, in February, 
1818. He came to Kentucky in the spring of 1775, and became early identified as a 
conspicuous leader in the border wars of that country. The border settlers of Kentuckj' 
could not successfully contend against the numerous and active war parties from, the 
Wabash who were continually lurking in their neighborhoods, coming, as Indians do, 
stealthily, striking a blow where least expected, and escaping before assistance could 
relieve the localities which they devastated, killing women and children, destroying 
live stock and burning the pioneers' cabins. Clark conceived the idea of capturing 
Vincennes and Kaskaskia. Keeping his plans to himself, he proceeded to Williams- 
burg and laid them before Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia, who promptly 
aided in their execution. Fi-om Gov. Henry Clark received two sets of instructions, 
one, to enlist seven companies of men, osteiisihli/ for the protection of the people of 
Kentucky, which at that time was a county of Virginia, the other, a secret order, to 
attack the British post of Kaskaskia! The result of his achievements was overshad- 
owed by the stirring events of the revolution eastward of the AUeghanies, where other 
heroes were winning a glory that dazzled while it drew public attention exclusively to 

•245 



l24i; HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

The account here given of Clark's campaign in ''The Illinois" is 
taken from a manuscript memoir composed by Clark himself, at the 
joint request of Presidents Jefterson and Madison."" We prefer 
giving the account in Gen. Clark's own words, as far as practicable. 

The memoir of Ctcu. Clark proceeds: "On the (24th) of June, 
1778, we left our little island, f and run about a mile up the river in 
order to gain the main channel, and shot the falls at the very mo- 
ment of the sun being in a great eclipse, which caused various con- 
jectures among the superstitious. As T knew that spies were kept 
on the river below the towns of the Illinois, I had resolved to march 
part of the way by land, and of course left the whole of our bag- 
gage, except as much as would equip us in the Indian mode. The 
whole of our force, after leaving such as was judged not competent 
to [endure] the expected fatigue, consisted only of four companies, 
commanded by Captains John Montgomery, Joseph Bowman, 
Leonard Helms and William Harrod. My force being so small to 
what I expected, owing to the various circumstances already men- 
tioned, I found it necessary to alter my plans of operation. 

"I had fully acquainted myself that the French inhabitants in 
those western settlements had great influence among the Indians in 
general, and were more beloved by them than any other Europeans ; 
that their commercial intercourse was universal throughout the west- 
ern and northwestern countries, and that the governing interest on 
the lakes was mostly in the hands of the English, who were not 
much beloved by them. These, and many other ideas similar 
thereto, caused me to resolve, if possible, to strengthen myself by 
such .train of conduct as might probably attach the French inhabit- 
ants to our interest, and give us influence in the country we were 
aiming for. These were the principles that influenced my future 
conduct, and, fortunately, I had just received a letter from Col. 

them. The west was a wilderness, — excepting' the isolated French settlements about 
Kaskaskia, and at Vincennes and Detroit. — and occupied only by savages and wild 
animals. It was not until after the great Northwest began to be settled, and its capa- 
bilities to sustain the empire, — since seated in its lap, — was realized, that the magni- 
tude of the conquest forced itself into notice. The several states of Ohio, Indiana, 
Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, carved out of the territory which he so gloriously 
won, — nay, the whole nation, — owe to the memory of Georg'e Rogers Clark a debt of 
gratitude that cannot be repaid in a mere expression of words. An account of his life 
and eminent services, worthy of the man, yet remains to be written. 

*.Iudge John B. Dillon, when preparing his first history of Indiana, in 1843, had 
access to Clark's original manuscript memoir, and copied copious extracts in the vol- 
ume named, and it is from this source that the extracts appearing in this work were 
taken. This book of Judge Dillon is not to be confounded with a History of Indiana, 
prepared and published by him in 1859. His first book, although somewhat crude, is 
exceedingly valuable for the historical matter it contains relating to the whole North- 
west, while the latter is a better digested history of the state of which he was an emi- 
nent citizen. 

t At Louisville. 



clakk's campaign. 247 

Campbell, dated Pittsburgli, informing me of the contents of the 
treaties* between France and America. As I intended to leave the 
Ohio at Fort Massac, three leagues below the Tennessee, I landed 
on a small island in the mouth of that riv^er, in order to prepare for 
the march. In a few hours after, one John DuiF and a party of 
hunters coming down the river were brought to by our boats. They 
were men formerly from the states, and assured us of their happiness 
in the adventure. . . . They liad been but lately from Kaskaskia, 
and were able to give us all the intelligence we wished. They said 
that Gov. Abbot had lately left Port Vincennes, and gone to Detroit 
on business of importance ; that Mr. Rochblave commanded at Kas- 
kaskia. etc.; that the militia was kept in good order, and spies on 
the Mississippi, and that all hunters, both Indians and others, were 
ordered to keep a good look-out for the rebels ; that the fort was kept 
in good order as an asylum, etc., but they believed the whole to 
proceed more from the fondness for parade than the expectation of 
a visit ; that if they received timely notice of us, they would collect 
and give us a warm reception, as they were taught to harbor a most 
horrid idea of the rebels, especially the Virginians ; but that if we 
could surprise the place, which they were in hopes we might, they 
made no doubt of our being able to do as we pleased ; that they 
hoped to be received as partakers in the enterprise, and wished us 
to put full confidence in them, and they would assist the guides in 
conducting the party. This was agreed to, and they proved valua- 
ble men. 

''The acquisition to us was great, as I had no intelligence from 
those ])osts since the spies I sent twelve months past. But no part 
of their information pleased me more than that of the inhabitants 
viewing us as more savage than their neighbors, the Indians. I was 
determined to improve upon this if I was fortunate enough to get 
them into my possession, as I conceived the greater the shock I 
could give them at first the more sensibly would they feel my lenity, 
and become more valuable friends. This I conceived to be agree- 
able to human nature, as I had observed it in many instances. 
Having everything prepared, we moved down to a little gully a 
small distance above Massac, in wdiich we concealed our boats, and 
set out a northwest course. The weather was favorable. In some 
parts water w^as scarce, as well as game. Of course we suifered 
drought and hunger, but not to excess. On the third day John 

*The timely information received of the alliance between the United States and 
France was made use of by Gen. Clark with his usual tact and with great success, as 
will be seen farther on. 



248 HISTORIC NOTKS ON THK NORTHWEST. 

Saunders, our principal guide, appeared confused, and we soon dis- 
covered that lie was totally lost, without there was some other cause 
of his present conduct. 

" I asked him various questions, and from his answers I could 
scarcely determine what to think of him, — whether or not that he 
was lost, or that he wished to deceive us. . . . The cry of the whole 
detachment was that he was a traitor. He begged that he miglit be 
suffered to go some distance into a plain that was in full view, to try 
to make some discovery whether or not he was right. I told him he 
might go, but that I was suspicious of him, from his conduct ; that 
from the first day of his being employed he always said he knew the 
way well ; that tliere was now a different appearance ; that I saw the 
nature of the country was such that a person once acquainted with 
it could not in a short time forget it; that a few men should go with 
him to prevent his escape, and that if he did not discover and take 
us into the hunter's road that led from the east into Kaskaskia, 
which he had frequently described, I would have him immediately 
put to death, which I was determined to have done. But after a 
search of an hour or two he came to a place that he knew perfectly, 
and we discovered that the poor fellow had been, as they 'call it, 
bewildered. 

'' On t\\Q fowth of Julij^ in the evening, we got within a few miles 
of the town, where we lay until near dark, keeping spies ahead, after 
which we commenced our march, and took possession of a house 
wlierein a large family lived, on the bank of the Kaskaskia Hiver, 
about three-quarters of a mile above the town. Here we were in- 
formed that the people a few days before were under arms, but had 
concluded that the cause of the alarm was without foundation, and 
that at that time there was a great number of men in town, but that 
the Indians had generally left it, and at present all was quiet. We 
soon procured a sufficiency of vessels, the more in ease to conve}' us 
across the river. 

''AVith one of the divisions I marched to the fort, and ordered the 
other two into different (piarters of the town. If I met with no resist- 
ance, at a certain signal a general shout was to be given and certain 
parts were to be immediately possessed, and men of each detach- 
ment, who could speak the French language, were to run through 
every street and proclaim what had happened, and inform the inhab- 
itants that every person that appeared in the streets would be shot 
down. This disposition had its desired effect. In a very little time 
we had complete possession, and every avenue was guarded to prevent 
any escape to give the alarm to the other villages in case of opposi- 



Clark's conquest. 249 

tion. Various orders had been issued not worth mentioning. I don't 
suj>pose greater silence ever reigned among the inhabitants of a 
phice than did at this at present ; not a person to be seen, not a word 
to be heard by them, for some time, but, designedly, the greatest 
noise kept up by our troops through every quarter of the town, and 
patrols continually the whole night around it, as intercepting any 
information was a capital object, and in about two hours the whole 
of the inhabitants were disarmed, -and informed that if one was taken 
attempting to make his escape he should be immediately put to 
death.'' 

When Col. Clark, by the use of various bloodless means, had 
raised the terror of the French inhabitants to a painful height, he 
surprised them, and won their confidence and friendship^i by perform- 
ing, unexpectedly, several acts of justice and generosity. On the 
morning of the 5th of July a few of the principal men were arrested 
and put in irons. Soon afterward M. Gibault, the priest of the vil- 
lage, accompanied by five or six aged citizens, waited on Col. Clark, 
and said that the inhabitants expected to be separated, perhaps never 
to meet again, and they begged to be permitted to assemble in their 
church, and there to take leave of each other. Col. Clark mildly 
told the priest that he had nothing to say against his religion ; that 
it was a matter which Americans left for every man to settle with his 
God ; that the people might assemble in their church, if they would, 
but that they must not venture out of town. 

Xearly the whole French population assembled at the church. 
The houses were deserted by all who could leave them, and Col. 
Clark gave orders to prevent any soldiers from entering the vacant 
buildings. After the close of the meeting at the church a deputation, 
c(.»nsisting of M. Guibault and several other persons, waited on Col. 
Clark, and said "that their present situation was the fate of war, and 
that they could submit to the loss of their property, but they solic- 
ited that they might not be separated from their wives and children, 
and that some clothes and provisions might be allowed for their 
support." Clark feigned surprise at this request, and abruptly 
exclaimed, "Do you mistake us for savages? I am almost cer- 
tain vou do from vour lanfi:uaffe ! Do vou think that Americans 
intend to strip women and children, or take the bread out of their 
mouths? My countrymen,'" said Clark, "disdain to make war 
upon helpless innocence. It was to prevent the horrors of Indian 
butchery upon our own wives and children that we have taken ai'ms 
and j)enetrated into this remote stronghold of British and Indian 
barbarity, and not the despicable prospect of plunder ; that now the 



250 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

king of France had united his powerful arms witli those of Anierica,. 
the war would not, in all probability, continue long, but the inhabit- 
ants of Kaskaskia were at liberty to take which side they pleased, 
without the least danger to either their property or families. Noi- 
would their religion be any source of disagreement, as all religions 
were regarded with equal respect in the eye of the American law, 
and that any insult offered to it would be immediately punished." 

"And now," Clark continues, "to prove my sincerity, you will 
please inform your fellow-citizens that they are quite at liberty to 
conduct themselves as usual, without the least apprehension. I am 
now convinced, from what I have learned since my arrival among 
you, that you have been misinformed and prejudiced against us by 
British officers, and your friends who are in confinement shall imme- 
diately be released."* In a few minutes after the delivery of this 
speech tlie gloom that rested on the minds of the inhabitants of 
Kaskaskia had passed away. The news of the treaty of alliance 
between France and the United States, and the influence of the mag- 
lumimous conduct of Clark, induced the French villagers to take the 
oath of allegiance to the state of Virginia. Their arms were restored 
to them, and a volunteer company of French militia joined a detach- 
ment under Capt. Bowman, when that officer was dispatched to take 
possession of Cahokia. The inhabitants of this small village, on 
hearing what hatl taken place at Kaskaskia, readily took the oath of 
allegiance to Virginia. 

,, The memoir of Clark proceeds: " Post Vincennes never being 
out of my mind, and from some things that I had learned I suspected 
that Mr. Gibault, the priest, was inclined to the American interest 
previous to our arrival in the country. Tie had great influence over 
the people at this period, and Post Vincennes was under his juris- 
diction. I made no doubt of his integrity to us. I sent for him, 
and had a lone: conference with him on the subject of Post Vincennes. 
In answer to all my queries he informed me that he did not think it 
worth my while to cause any military preparation to be made at the 
Falls of the Ohio for the attack of Post Vincennes, although the place 
was strong and a great number of Indians in its neighborhood, who, 
to his knowledge, were generally at war ; that the governor had, a 
few weeks before, left the place on some business to Detroit ; that 
he expected that when the inhabitants were fully acquainted with 
what had j^assed at the Illinois, and the ]iresent happiness of their 
friends, and made fully acquainted with the nature of the war, their 
sentiments would greatly change; that lie knew that his appearance 

* Clark's Memoir. 



SECURES VINCENNES. 251 

there would have great weight, even among the savages ; that if 
it was agreeable to nie he would take this business on himself, and 
had no doubt of his being able to bring that place over to the Amer- 
ican interest without my being at the trouble of marching against it ; 
that the business being altogether spiritual, he wished that another 
person might be charged with the temporal part of the embassy, but 
that he would privately direct the whole, and he named Dr. Lafont 
as his associate. 

"This was perfectly agreeable to what I had been secretly aim- 
ing at for some days. The plan was immediately settled, and the 
two doctors, with their intended retinue, among wliom I had a spy, 
set about preparing for their journey, and set out on the 14th of July, 
with an address to the inhabitants of Post Yincennes, authorizing 
them to garrison their own town themselves, which would convince 
them of the great confidence we put in them, etc. All this had its 
desired effect. Mr. Gibault and his party arrived safe, and after 
their spending a da}' or two in explaining matters to the people, 
they universally acceded to the proposal (except a few emissaries 
left by Mr. Abbot, who immediately left the country), and went in a 
body to the church, where the oath of allegiance was administered 
to them in a most solemn manner. An officer was elected, the fort 
immediately [garrisoned], and the Amei'ican flag displayed to the 
astonishment of the Indians, and everything settled far beyond our 
most sanguine hopes. The people here immediately began to put 
on a new face, and to talk in a different style, and to act as perfect 
freemen. With a garrison of their own, with the United States at 
their elbow, their language to the Indians was immediately altered. 
They began as citizens of the United States, and informed the 
Indians that their old father, the king of France, was come to life 
again, and was mad at them for fighting for the English ; that they 
would advise them to make peace with the Americans as soon as 
they could, otherwise they might expect the land to be very bloody, 
etc. The Indians began to think seriously ; throughout the country 
this was the kind of language they generally got from their ancient 
friends of the Wabash and Illinois. Through the means of their 
correspondence spreading among the nations, our batteries began 
now to play in a proper channel. Mr. Gibault and party, accom- 
panied by several gentlemen of Post Yincennes, returned to Kas- 
kaskia about the 1st of August with the joyful news. During his 
absence on this business, which caused great anxiety to me (for 
without the ])ossession of this post all our views would have been 
blasted), I was exceedingly engaged in regulating things in the Illi- 



252 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

nois. The reduction of these posts was the period of the enlistment 
of our troops. I was at a great h)ss at the time to determine how 
to act, and how far I might venture to strain my authority. My 
instructions were silent on many important points, as it was impos- 
sible to foresee the events that would take place. To abandon the 
country, and all the prospects that opened to our view in the Indian 
department at this time, for the want of instruction in certain cases, 
1 thought would amount to a reflection on government, as having no 
confidence in me. I resolved to usurp all the authority necessary to 
carry my points. I had the greater part of our [troopsj reenlisted 
on a different establishment, commissioned French officers in the 
country to command a company of the young inhabitants, estab- 
lished a garrison at Oahokia, commanded by Capt. Bowman, and 
another at Kaskaskia, commanded by Capt. Williams. Post Yin- 
cennes remained in the situation as mentioned. Col. William Linn, 
who had accompanied us as a volunteer, took charge of a party 
that was to be discharged upon their arrival at the Falls, and 
orders were sent for the removal of that post to the mainland. 
Capt, John Montgomer}' was dispatched to government with letters. 
... I again turned my attention to Post Yincennes. I plainly saw 
that it would be highly necessary to have an American officer at that 
post. Capt. Leonard Helm appeared calculated to answer my pur- 
pose ; he was past the meridian of life, and a good deal acquainted 
with the Indian [disposition]. I sent him to command at that post, 
and also appointed him agent for Indian affairs in the dejjartment of 
the AV abash. . . . About the middle of August he set out to take 
possession of his new command." Thus,"' says Clark, referring to 

* "An Indian chief called the Tobacco's Son, a Piankeshaw, at this time resided in 
a village adjoining Post Vincennes. This man was called by the Indians 'The Grand 
Door to the Wabash ' ; and as nothing of consequence was to be undertaken by the 
league on the Wabash without his assent, I discovered that to win him was an object 
of signal importance. I sent him a spirited compliment b}' Mr. Gibault; he returned 
it. I now, by Capt. Helm, touched him on the same spring that I had done the inhab- 
itants, and sent a speech, with a belt of wampum, directing Capt. Helm how to man- 
age if the chief was pacifically inclined or otherwise. The captain arrived safe at Post 
Vincennes, and was received with acclamations by the people. After the usual cere- 
mony was over he sent for the (irand Door, and delivered my letter to him. After 
having read it, he mformed the captain that he was happy to see him, one of the Big 
Knife chiefs, in this town; it was here he had joined the English against him; but he 
confessed that he always thought thoy looked gloomy; that as the contents of the let- 
ter were of great moment, he could not give an answer for some time; that he must 
collect his counsellors on the subject, and was in hopes the captain would be patient. 
In short, he put on all the courtly dignity that he was master of, and Capt. Helm fol- 
lowing his example, it was several days before this business was finished, as the whole 
proceeding was very ceremonious. At length the captain was invited to the Indian 
council, and informed by Tobacco that they had maturely considered the case in hand, 
and had got the nature of the war between the English and us explained to their sat- 
isfaction; that as we spoke the same language and appeared to be the same ])eople, he 
always thought that he was in the dark as to the truth of it, but now the sky was 



Clark's influence ovkk the Indians. 253 

Helm's success, "ended this valuable negotiation, ajid the saving of 
niuch blood. ... In a short time almost the whole of the various 
tribes of the different nations on the Wabash, as high as the Ouia- 
tanon, came to Post Yincennes, and followed the example of the 
Grand Door Chief; and as exj3resses were continually passing be- 
tween Capt. Helm and myself the whole time of these treaties, the 
business was settled perfectly to my satisfaction, and greatly to the 
advantage of the public. The British interest daily lost ground in 
this quarter, and in a short time our influence reached the Indians 
on the River St. Joseph and the border of Lake Michigan. The 
French gentlemen at the different posts we now had possession of 
engaged warmly in our interest. They appeared to vie with each 
other in j^romoting the business, and through the means of their 
correspondence, trading among the Indians, and otherwise, in a 
short time the Indians of various tribes inhabiting the region of 
Illinois came in great numbers to Cahokia, in order to make treaties 
of peace with us. From the information they generally got from 
the French gentlemen (whom they implicitly believed) respecting us, 
they were truly alarmed, and, consequently, we were visited by the 
greater part of them, without any invitation from us. Of course we 
had greatly the advantage in making use of such language as suited 
our [interest]. Those treaties, which commenced about the last of 
August and continued between three and four weeks, were probably 
conducted in a way different from any other known in America at 
that time. I had been always convinced that our general conduct 
with the Indians was wrong ; that inviting them to treaties was con- 
sidered by them in a different manner from what we expected, and 
imputed by them to fear, and that giving them great presents con- 
firmed it. I resolved to guard against this, and I took good pains 
to make myself acquainted fully with the French and Spanish 
methods of treating Indians, and with the manners, genius and dis- 
position of the Indians in general. As in this quarter they had not 
yet been spoiled by us, I was resolved that they should not be. I 
began the business fully pre])ared, having copies of the British trea- 
ties." 

At the first great council, which was opened at Cahokia, an Indian 
chief, with a belt of peace in his hand, advanced to the table at which 

cleared up; that he found that the 'Big Knife' was in the right; that perhaps if the 
English conquered, they would sarve them in the same manner that they intended to 
serve us; that his ideas were quite changed, and that he would tell all the red people 
on the Wabash to bloody the land no more for the English. He jumped up, struck 
his breast, called himself a man and a warrior, said that he was now a Big Knife, and 
took Capt. Helm by the hand. His example was followed by all present, and the 
evening was spent in merriment." 



254 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

Col. (Mark was sitting; another chief, bearing the sacred pipe of the 
tribe, went forward to the table, and a third chief then advanced 
with tire to kindle the pipe. When the pipe was lighted it was fig- 
uratively presented to the heavens, then to tlie earth, then to all the 
good spirits, to witness what was about to be done. After the ob- 
servance of these forms the pipe was presented to Clark, and after- 
ward to every person present. An Indian speaker then addressed 
the Indians as follows : "• Warriors, — You ought to be thankful that 
the Great Spirit has taken pity on you, and cleared the sky and 
opened your ears and hearts, so that you may hear the truth. We 
have been deceived by bad birds fiying through the land. But we 
will take up the bloody hatchet no more against the Big Knife," and 
we hope, as the Great Spirit has brought us together for good, as he 
is good, that we may be received as friends, and that the belt of 
peace may take the place of the bloody belt." 

"I informed them," says Clark, "that I had paid attention to 
what they had said, and that on the next day I would give them an 
answer, when I hoped the ears and hearts of all people would be 
opened to receive the truth, which should be spoken without decep- 
tion. I advised them to keep prepared for the result of this day, on 
which, perhaps, their very existence as a nation depended, etc., and 
dismissed them, not suffering any of our people to shake hands with 
them, as peace was not yet concluded, telling them it was time enough 
to give the hand when the heart could be given also. They replied 
that ' sucli sentiments were like men who had but one heart, and did 
not speak with a double tongue.' The next day I delivered them the 
following speech : 

'Men and AVarriors, — Pay attention to my words: You informed 
me yesterday that the Great Spirit had brought us together, and that 
you hoped, as he was good, that it would be for good. I have also 
the same hope, and expect that each party will strictly adhere to 
whatever may be agreed upon, whether it be peace or war, and hence- 
forward prove ourselves worthy of the attention of the Great Spirit. 
I am a man and a warrior, — not a counsellor. I carry war in my 

* The early border men of Virginia and her county of Kentucky usually carried 
very large knives. From this circumstance the Virginians were called, in the Illinois 
(Miami) dialect, She-mol-sea, meaning the "Big Knife." At a later day the same 
appellation, under the Chippewayan word Che-mo- L'O-man, was extended, by the 
Indians, to the white people generally, — always excepting the Englishman proper, 
whom they called the Sag-e-nash, and the Yankees to whom they gave the epithet of 
Bos-to-ne-h/, i.e., the Bostonians. The term is derived from the Miami word mal-she, 
or mol-sea, a knife, or the Ojibbeway mo-ko-man, which means the same thing. The 
prefix che or she emphasizes the kind or size of the instrument, as a huge, long or big 
knife. Such is the origin of the expression "long knives," frequently found in books 
where Indian characters occur. 



CLARK'S SPEECH TO THE INDIANS. 255 

right luiml, and in my left, peace. I am sent by tlie great council of 
the Big Knife, and their friends, to take possession of all the towns 
possessed by tlie Englisli in this country, and to watch the motions 
of the red people; to bloody the ])aths of those who attempt to stop 
the course of the I'iver, but to clear the roads from us to those who 
desire to be in peace, that the women and children may walk in them 
without meeting anything to strike their feet against. I am ordered 
to call upon the Great Fire for warriors enough to darken the land, 
and that the red people may hear no sound but of birds who live on 
blood. I know there is a mist before your eyes. I will dispel the 
clouds, that you may clearly see the cause of the war between the 
Big Knife and the English, then you may judge for yourselves which 
party is in the right, and if you are warriors, as you profess to be, 
prove it by adhering faithfully to the party which you shall believe 
to be entitled to your friendship, and do not show yourselves to be 
squaws. 

'The Big Knives are very much like the red people. They don't 
know how to make blankets and powder and cloth. They buy these 
things Irom the English, from whom they are sprung. They live by 
making corn, hunting and trade, as you and your neighbors, the 
French, do. But the Big Knives, daily getting more numerous, like 
the trees in the woods, the land became poor and hunting scarce, 
and having but little to trade with, the women began to cry at seeing 
their children naked, and tried to learn how to make clothes for 
themselves. They soon made blankets for their husbands and chil- 
dren, and the men learned to make guns and powder. In this way 
we did not want to buy so much from the English. They then got 
mad with us, and sent strong garrisons through our country, as you 
see they have done among you on the lakes, and among the French. 
They would not let our women spin, nor our men make powder, nor 
let us trade with anybody else. The English said we should buy 
everything of them, and since we had got saucy we should give two 
bucks for a blanket, which we used to get for one ; we should do as 
they pleased ; and they killed some of our people, to make the rest 
fear them. This is the truth, and the real cause of the war between 
the English and us. which did not take place until some time after 
this treatment. 

' But our women became cold and hungry and continued to cry. 
Our young men got lost for want of counsel to put them in the right 
path. The whole land was dark. The old men held down their 
heads for shame, because they could not see the sun ; and thus there 
was mourning for many years over the land. At last the Great 



256 HISTORIC NOTES OM THK NORTHWEST. 

Spirit took pity on us, and kindled a great council fire, that never 
goes out, at a place called Philadelphia. He then stuck down 
a post, and put a war tomahawk by it, and went away. The sun 
immediately broke out, the sky was blue again, and the old men 
held up their heads and assembled at the fire. They took up the 
hatchet, sharpened it, and ])ut it into the hands of our young men, 
ordering them to strike the English as long as they could find one 
on this side of the great waters. The young men immediately struck 
the war post and blood was shed. Tn this way the war began, and 
the English were driven from -one place to another until they got 
weak, and then they hired you red people to fight for them. The 
Great Spirit got angry at this, and caused your old father, the 
French king, and other great nations, to join the Big Knives, and 
fight with them against all their enemies. So the English have be- 
come like deer in the woods, and you may see that it is the Great 
Spirit that has caused your waters to be troubled, because you have 
fought for the people he was mad with. If your women and chil- 
dren should now cry, you must blame yourselves for it, and not the 
Big Knives. 

' You can now judge who is in the right. I have already told 
you who I am. Here is a bloody belt and a white one, take which 
you please. Behave like men, and don't let your being surrounded 
by the Big Knives cause you to take up the one belt with your hands 
while your hearts take up the other. If you take the bloody path, 
you shall leave the town in safety, and may go and join your friends, 
the English. We will then try, like warriors, who can put the most 
stumbling-blocks in each other's way, and keep our clothes longest 
stained with blood. If, on the other hand, you should take the path 
of peace, and be received as brothers to the Big Knives, with their 
friends, the French ; should you then listen to bad birds that may 
be flying through the land, you will no longer deserve to be counted 
as men, but as creatures with two tongues, that ought to be destroyed 
without listening to anything you might say. As I am convinced 
you never heard the truth before, I do not wish you to answer be- 
fore you have taken time to counsel. We will, therefore, part this 
evening, and when the Great Spirit shall bring us together again, let 
us speak and think like men, with but one heart and one tongue.' 

"The next day after this speech a new fire was kindled with 
more than usual ceremony ; an Indian speaker came forward and 
said : They ought to be thankful that the Great Spirit had taken 
pity on them, and o])ened their ears and their hearts to receive the 
truth. He had paid great attention to what the Great Spirit had 



CLARK TREATS WITH THE INDIANS. 257 

put into my heart to sav to tlieiii. Tliey believed tlie wliole to be 
tlie truth, as tlie Big Knives did not speak like any other people 
thej had ever heard. They now saw they had been deceived, and 
that the English had told them lies, and that I had told them the 
truth, just as some of their old men had always told them. They 
now believed that we were in the right ; and as the English had 
forts in their country, they might, if they got strong enough, want 
to serve the red people as they had treated the Big Knives. The 
red people ought, therefore, to help us, and they had, with a cheer- 
ful heart, taken up the belt of peace, and spurned that of war. They 
were determined to hold the former fast, and would have no doubt 
of our friendship, from the manner of our speaking, so different 
from that of the English. They would now call in their warriors, 
and throw the tomahawk into the river, where it could never be 
found. They would suffer no more bad birds to fly through the 
land, disquieting the women and children. They would be careful 
to smooth the roads for their brothers, the Big Knives, whenever 
they might wish to come and see them. Their friends should hear 
of the good talk I had given them ; and they hoped I would send 
chiefs among them, with my eyes, to see myself that they were men, 
and strictly adhered to all they had said at this great tire, which the 
Great Spirit had kindled at Cahokia for the good of all people who 
would attend it." 

The sacred pipe was again kindled, and presented, flguratively, 
to the heavens and the earth, and to all fthe good spirits, as witness 
of what had been done. The Indians and the white men then closed 
the council by smoking the pipe and shaking hands. With no ma- 
terial variation, either of the forms that were observed, or with the 
speeches that were made at this council. Col. Clark and his officers 
concluded treaties of peace with the Piankeshaws, Ouiatenons, Kick- 
apoos, Illinois, Kaskaskias, Peorias, and branches of some other 
tribes that inhabited the couutry between Lake Michigan and the 
Mississippi. 

Gov. Henry soon received intelligence of the successful progress 
of the expedition under the command of Clark. The French inhab- 
itants of the villages of Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Post Yincennes 
took the oath of allegiance to the State of Virginia. 

In October, 1YT8, the General Assembly of the State of Virginia 
passed an act which contained the following })rovisions, viz : All the 
citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia ''•who are already settled 
or shall hereafter settle on the western side of the Ohio^ shall be in- 
cluded in a distinct county, which shall be called Illinois county ; 
17 



258 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 

and the governor of this commonwealth, witli the advice of the 
council, may appoint a county lieutenant, or commandant-in-chief, 
in that county, during pleasure, who shall appoint and commission 
so many deputy commandants, militia officers and commissaries as 
he shall think pro})er in tlie (litferent districts, during pleasure ; all 
of whom, before they enter into office, shall take the oath of fidelity 
to this commonwealth and the oath of office, according to the form 
of their own religion. And all civil officers to which the inhabit- 
ants have been accustomed, necessary for the preservation of the 
peace and the administration of justice, shall be chosen by a major- 
ity of the citizens in their respective districts, to^ be convened for 
that purpose by the county lieutenant, or commandant, or his deputy, 
and shall be commissioned by the said county lieutenant or com- 
mandant-in-chief. ' ' 

Before the provisions of the law were carried into effect, Henry 
Hamilton, the British lieutenant-governor of Detroit, collected an 
army, consisting of about thirty regulars, fifty French volunteers, 
and four hundred Indians. With this force he passed down the 
River Wabash, and took possession of Post Yincennes on the 15th 
of December, 1778. l^o attempt was made by the population to 
defend the town. Capt. Helm was taken and detained as a prisoner, 
and a number of the French inhabitants disarmed. 

Clark was aware that Gov. Hamilton, now that he had regained 
possession of Vincennes, would undertake the capture of his forces, 
and realizing his danger, he determined to forestall Hamilton and 
capture the latter. His !plans were at once formed. He sent a por- 
tion of his available force by boat, called The Willing, with instruc- 
tions to Capt. Rogers, the commander, to proceed down the Missis- 
sippi and up the Ohio and Wabash, and secrete himself a few miles 
below Vincennes, and prohibit any persons from passing either up or 
down. With another part of his force he marched across the country, 
through prairies, swamps and marshes, crossing swollen streams — 
for it was in the month of February, and the whole country was 
flooded from continuous rains — and arriving at the banks of the 
Wabash near St. Francisville, he pushed across the river and brought 
his forces in the rear of Yincennes before daybreak. So secret and 
rapid were his niovements that Gov. Hamilton had no notice that 
Clark had left Kaskaskia. Chirk issued a notice requiring the 
people of the town to keep within their houses, and declaring that 
all persons found elsewhere would be treated as enemies. Tobacco's 
Son tendered one hundred of his Piankashaw braves, himself at 
their head. Clark declined their services with thanks, saying his 



SURRENDER OF HAMILTON. 259 

own force was sufficient. Gov. Hamilton had just completed the 
fort, consisting of strong block-houses at each angle, with the cannon 
placed on the upper floors, at an elevation of eleven feet from the 
surface. The works were at once closely invested. The ports were 
so badly cut, the men on the inside could not stand to their cannon 
for the bullets that would whiz from the rifles of Clark's sharp- 
shooters through the embrasures whenever they were suffered for 
an instant to remain open. 

The town immediately surrendered with joy, and assisted at the 
siege. After the first oflfer to surrender upon terms was declined, 
Hamilton and Clark, with attendants, met in a conference at the 
Catholic church, situated some eighty rods from the fort, and in the 
afternoon of the same day, the 24th of February, 1^79, the fort and 
garrison, consisting of seventy-five men, surrendered at discretion.* 
The result was that Hamilton and his whole force were made prison- 
ers of war.+ Clark held military possession of the northwest until 
the close of the war, and in that way it was secured to our country. 
At the treaty of peace, held at Paris at the close of the revolutionary 
war, the British insisted that the Ohio River should be the northern 
boundary of the United States. The correspondence relative to that 
treaty shows that the only ground on which ' ' the American commis- 
sioners relied to sustain their claim that the lakes should be the 
boundary was the fact that Gen. Clark had conquered the country, 
and was in the undisputed military possession of it at the time of 
the negotiation. This fact was affirmed and admitted, and was the 
chief ground on which British commissioners reluctantly abandoned 
their claim.":}: 

* Two days after the Willing arrived, its crew much mortified because they did not 
share in the victory, although Clark commended them for their diligence. Two day* 
before Capt. Rogers' arrival with the Willing, Clark had dispatched three armed 
boats, under charge of Capt. Helm and Majors Bosseron and Le Grass, up the Wabash, 
to intercept a fleet which Clark was advised was on its way from Detroit, laden with 
supplies for Gov. Hamilton at Vincennes. About one hundred and twenty miles up 
the river the British boats, seven in number, having aboard military supplies of 
the value of ten thousand pounds sterling money and forty men, among whom was 
Philip De Jean, a magistrate of Detroit, were captured by Capt. Helm. The writer 
has before hira the statement of John McFall, born near Vincennes in 1798. He lived 
near and in Vincennes until 1817. His grandfather, Ralph Mattison, was one of 
Clark's soldiers who accompanied Helm's expedition up the Wabash, and he often told 
McFall, his grandson, that the British were lying by in the Vermilion River, near its 
mouth, where they were surprised in the night-time and captured by Helm without 
firing a shot. 

tThis march, from its daring conception, and the obstacles encountered and over- 
come, is one of the most thrilling events in our history, and it is to be regretted that 
the limited space assigned to other topics precludes its insertion. 

J Burnett's Notes on the Northwest Territory, p. 77. 



^ 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

( — 

THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY— THE ORDINANCE OF 1787 — BILL OF 
RIGHTS — FREE SCHOOL SYSTEM — PROVISIONS FOR STATES — OLD 
BOUNDARIES BETWEEN CANADA AND LOUISIANA— INDIAN WARS — 
THE INDIAN COUNTRY RAVAGED. 

Col. Clark having c{i])tured Gov. Ilaiiiilton's forces at Vin- 
ceniies, and reestablished the autlioritj of Virginia over the north- 
west territory, Col. John Todd, commissioned as lieutenant for the 
county of Illinois, in the spring ot 1TT9 proceeded to Kaskaskia and 
Vincennes, and organized a government under the act of the Gen- 
eral Assembly of Virginia of October, 1778, for the establishing of 
^'^ Illinois County y Col. Todd formed courts of justice, and pro- 
vided other machinery to secure peace and good order among the 
inhabitants. The court was comprised of several magistrates, who 
•dispensed justice, in the absence of statutes specifically defining 
their powers, pretty much according to their own unrestrained no- 
tions of equity, applied according to the emergency of each particu- 
lar case, as it would come before them, much after the manner of 
the early French commandants.* 

The northwest territory soon became a source of trouble to the 
continental congress. Besides the claims of Virginia, New York, 
Massachusetts and Connecticut asserted title to portions of it by 
virtue of their ancient charters. f These conflicting claims were the 
subjects of much discussion and legislative action in the states 
named, and by congress as well. Congress, on the 6th of Septem- 
ber, 1780, requested the several states "having claims to waste and 
unappropriated lands in the western country to cede a portion- 

*"The court" was one of high authority, and among the powers it arrogated to 
itself was the right of disposing of the pubHc lands. After having granted some 
twenty-two thousand acres to private individuals, by orders entered from time to time 
upon their records, "the court" partitioned large tracts among themselves; the recip- 
ient member would, out of modesty, absent himself from "court" on the day the 
entry was made on the journal by his associates in his favor, "so that it might appear 
to be the act of his fellows only." Official letter of Gen. Harrison, January 19, 1803. 
The evil grew to such proportions that Gen. Harner, in 1787, issued a military order 
suppressing it. 

t Connecticut, claiming through her charter granted on the 23d of April, 1662, by 
King Charles the Second, passed a resolution in 1783, to the effect "That all the land 
lying west of the western limits of Pennsylvania and east of the Mississippi, and be- 
tween the forty-first and forty-second parallels of latitude," was hers. 

260 



